Regeneration
by Mez10000
Summary: After the tree is planted, the world seems peaceful. However, things are rarely as they seem...Now back from the abyss and being rewritten!
1. Chapter 1

Mez: Although this is posted in my name, Jana11015 was the main source of idea's. I just typed and did the spelling.

Jana: So if you have a problem with spelling, talk to her; the critic of everyone else's spelling.

Mez: Not my fault. Your (OLD!) computer hasn't got a spell check.

Jana: That means _you rely_ on the spell checker all the time! You had to look up 'rely'! (Evil Mithos laugh)

Mez: Well, I don't think the readers want to listen to this for much longer...So we need a disclaimer!

Jana & Mez: (summon muses; Kira and Jingo)

Mez: One of you do a disclaimer.

Jingo & Kira : (Points at each other) You can do it!

Jana: Jingo, disclaimer, or the Kratos doll gets it!

Jingo: I think Kira was right to put mini-Yuan in a very high security place. (sigh) Mez10000 and Jana-Yggdrasil does not own Tales Of Symphonia or Namco.

* * *

"Lloyd are you okay?" Genis was concerned for his human friend.

Lately, Lloyd had been looking pale, and from what Colette and Genis had heard when Lloyd was alone, he'd started talking to himself.

"I...I...I'm fine Genis!" He snapped guiltily, only confirming whatever suspicions the half-elf had.

Colette spoke up rather timidly. "You have been acting a little weird an..."

"I said 'I'm **fine**!'" Lloyd stormed off, deep into the shadow depths of the cavern which the friends had been exploring.

"Lloyd!" Genis shouted into the gloom.

"Lloyd has been acting weird lately. What is wrong with him?" Colette looked worried.

The three heroes were down a cave just west of Palmacosta. They had been repairing Palamacosta, and had just had a small break from the work.

"Why don't we get back to Palamacosta and help repairs again." Genis suggested.

"But we can't just leave Lloyd down here."

"Leave him be. It's not exactly as if he can't look after himself. He probably just needs some time alone."

"Well, the people do need us to help with repairs..." Colette looked torn. "Okay, we'll come back after a little while."

Genis and Colette went out, as they said, to help repair Palmacosta.

Meanwhile, Lloyd was lost.

"Guys? Help me? Please? Look, I'm sorry, I…" Then he noticed a slight echo. "Cool, there's an echo!"

"Echo, echo..." The walls seemed to speak.

"Hello? Are you guys up there?" Lloyd asked into the darkness.

Suddenly Lloyd heard a loud rumbling. The ceiling started to fall...

Up above, Genis and Colette had run into some weak monsters.

"Pancake time, Dreaded Wave!" Genis cast.

However, the localised earthquake was directly above Lloyd.

A crack in the ground appeared, but Genis didn't think anything of it. He just thought it was the after-effects of his attack. Lloyd crawled out of the crack, covered in earth and extremely annoyed. Luckily for Genis, Lloyd's legs were trapped.

"You...you failed Chosen and you traitor!" Lloyd shouted angrily, then pulled his legs free and ran.

"What are you...talking about?" Genis was shocked by Lloyd's words and actions.

Lloyd ran to Palmacosta.

"Reduce these evil souls to ashes, Judgment!" Lloyd cast. Devastating rays of light crashed into the newly built Palmacosta. Neil came out of the town hall.

"What are you doing? You helped to rebuild this city!" He shouted desperately.

Lloyd ignored Neil and laughed manically. After the city was completely destroyed, Lloyd fainted.

Colette and Genis were heading back to the city when they saw the destruction. Some houses were alight, sending plumes of black smoke into the air.

"What the- that looks like Judgment. But it's impossible! Who could have cast it?" Genis said disbelievingly.

"The city - it's being destroyed! Who could do such a thing!" Colette had an expression of worry on her face, for the city's citizens who were now suffering.

The two rushed towards the ruined city. When they entered, the first thing they saw was Neil.

"You're alright! Thank goodness!" Colette said.

"Neil, what happened here?" Genis asked.

"That friend of yours used magic to destroy the city!" Neil shouted.

"Who?" They said in unison.

"Lloyd." He said in a grave tone.

"But that's impossible! He's not capable of destroying a town. He just wouldn't do it. Besides, Lloyd can't use magic. And even if he could, it would use up too much of his body's mana!"

"That must be why he collapsed, then."

"Where is he now?" Colette was worried about Lloyd.

"He's in Clara's old cell. You don't need to worry."

"Can we see him?"

"Absolutely not! We know he's your friend. You're lucky you aren't in there with him." Neil spat.

"We aren't going to help him. We just want to know what-" Genis was cut off by a loud explosion from the direction of the town hall.

Lloyd came running out.

"You…you didn't do this, right? You didn't- you couldn't…" Colette's eyes were pleading, hoping it wasn't true.

Lloyd said nothing and ran away from Colette. She drew out her angel wings and flew, landing in front of him.

"Please, Lloyd. Stop this!"

"Hunting Beast!" Lloyd used, knocking Colette to the ground. He ran away, laughing as he went.

Genis ran over to Colette, who was now crying.

"Colette, are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine." She choked out.

"You're crying." Genis was concerned.

"It's just...I can't believe he'd do that." Colette sobbed.

While Genis was left to comfort Colette, Lloyd had bigger plans. Lloyd had pulled out his wings and had started to fly towards Thoda Geyser.

* * *

Jana: Okay, please review. This is my first 'fic. Otherwise I will destroy you inferior beings. Muhahahahahahahahahahahahah!

Mez: Stop freaking out the reviewers! Keep your 'Mithos' personality inside!

Jana: I'm not going to submit to your inferior requests.

Mez: Right. And all flamers will be trapped with Jana for eternity. That's a fate worse than hell!


	2. Chapter 2

Jana: Hope you enjoy this part of the 'fic.

Mez: Yeah, this will try to answer some questions you might have.

Jana: We need a disclaimer.

Mez: Allow me. Kira! Kira, get your butt over here now! (Kira appears)

Kira: I'm not doing the disclaimer. You can't threaten me with mini-Yuan, either.

Mez: What if I make Yuan appear in the chapter?

Kira: I need more than that.

Mez: Okay, I'll give you a new character doll for every time you do the disclaimer.

Kira: Yay! Mez10000 and Jana-Yggdrasil don't own Tales of Symphonia or Namco. And now I want a Kratos doll!

Mez: sigh Fine, here you go.

* * *

"We have to stop Lloyd. He might try to kill himself or something!" Colette was now beyond worried.

"Why would he kill himself?" Genis reasoned.

"Why would he destroy Palamacosta?"

"I don't know. Maybe…stress?" Genis ended weakly, not believing his own words for even a second.

"No, there has to be more than that! There just has to be!"

"Well then, what do you think it is?"

"He could just be having a bad day." Colette said, half happily.

"Why would he do that? Even on a bad day, even if he had to fight the entire forces of Neflheim, I can't imagine Lloyd destroying a city."

"It doesn't matter. We have to stop him, before he hurts himself...or anyone else."

"We haven't got a clue where he is. And remember, he has magic now."

Colette and Genis thought hard about how to find 'Lloyd'.

"I've got it! We'll ask the Mizuho information network!" Genis suggested.

So, the two worried heroes went to Mizuho.

Lloyd, however, had arrived at Thoda geyser and was thinking of a way in. His wings were still out, so he flew over the geyser. The geyser made an unsettling rumbling sound.

"Uh-oh."

A pillar of hot water struck down Lloyd.

He cried out in pain, but his Exsphere made him strong enough to withstand the boiling water.

He tried again, timing his flight so he flew in-between the bursts of scorching water. He made it inside the temple.

"Ha, take that, Undine!"

Lloyd flew to the teleport that leads to Undine's room. In Undine's room, the Summon spirit appeared.

"Lloyd, what are you doing here?" Undine asked.

"Shut it, Undine. I want a pact."

Colette and Genis were in Mizuho, informing Sheena.

"Lloyd's gone crazy? That's impossible. I can't believe that."

"It's true! We need to find Lloyd. We need to talk some sense into him."

"He was last seen heading towards Thoda Geyser." Sheena said.

"Thank you, Sheena. We're going to go after him. Do you want to come?" Colette asked.

"I'm sorry, but I can't just leave Mizuho." Sheena apologised.

Tiga walked up to Sheena. "Don't worry, your grandpa and I can look after Mizuho for a couple of days. Go and find Lloyd."

"How did you know what we were talking about?" Genis asked, suspiciously.

"You can't say anything in Mizuho without it being heard."

"Oh. Well, welcome back to the group, Sheena. Do you know the fastest way to get to Thoda Geyser?"

"Yes," said Sheena. " We can use the Rheairds."

The ex-chosen, half-elf and assassin all flew to the Geyser.

Outside the Water Temple, Raine was studying the geyser. However, the geyser was erupting irregularly and Raine was getting drenched.

Inside the temple, Lloyd was attempting to form a pact with Undine.

"I wish to form a pact with you!" He screamed.

"Lloyd, what's wrong? You aren't yourself." Said a, now worried, Summon Spirit.

Once the three had landed, they spotted Raine.

"Sis, why are you wet?" Genis asked.

"Something's wrong with the geyser." Raine said, trying hard not to snap at anyone.

"That's not good, this geyser represents how Undine is." Sheena explained, worriedly.

"So, Sheena, what's the matter with Undine?" Genis asked, shouting over another eruption of hot water.

"How should I know?!"

"You're the one who has a pact with her!" Genis shouted.

"Not any more Genis, have you forgotten already?! I freed all the Summon Spirits from their pacts!" Sheena shouted.

"You're all acting like children." Raine attempted to stop the argument.

"I am a child." Genis protested.

Raine gave him a smack round the head.

"We need to find out what's the problem with Undine." Sheena said.

They all headed into the temple.

Meanwhile, Lloyd was in a fight with Undine, to test his worthiness as a pactmacker.

Undine cast Spread, and Lloyd easily dodged the pillar of water. Then he used Outburst, smashing Undine to the floor. She picked herself up and cast Aqua Laser. Again, Lloyd easily evaded the attack and cast Holy Lance. A magical symbol appeared beneath Undine and she got attacked with five spears, crashing down into her. Undine gave up.

"Make your vow."

"I promise to get revenge on those that have betrayed me!" Lloyd promised, angrily.

"I reluctantly put my power in your hands." Undine disappeared in a blue sparkle.

Sheena, Raine, Genis and Colette came running in.

"Lloyd, what are you doing? Are you okay?" Genis asked worriedly.

Lloyd collapsed again, without the chance to answer.

"He's suffering from mana deprivation. We should set up camp outside and let him rest." Raine explained.

That night, when Lloyd woke up, he tried to run away. However, he couldn't move. He looked around and found himself in a fairly decorated room. Yuan was standing over him, casting an immobilizing spell.

"Lloyd, you're in the Renegade Base in Triet. I'm only immobilizing you on order of your friends. Now, can you tell me what happened?" Yuan's voice was even, as if in an attempt not to prejudge Lloyd, but to still keep a fair mind.

"I didn't do anything." Lloyd then muttered, "Traitor."

"What did you say?!" Yuan struggled to keep calm.

Lloyd was taken aback. "How did you hear-?..oh, angelic hearing, of course."

"You sound...different." The word Yuan first thought of was 'intelligent'.

The rest of the group came in. Yuan was now quite freaked out by Lloyd's new personality.

"How is he? Is he...Lloyd?" Colette asked.

"Depends how you mean 'Lloyd'."

"We mean 'Lloyd' as in: stupid, short attention span, ignorant, non-evil, etc." Raine clarified.

"Then, no."

"But what could've made him like this?" Genis asked.

"Now, that's the billion gald question."

"I notice that no one has asked me!" Lloyd shouted, to attract their attention.

"Well, we didn't think that you'd give us answer; you know, turning evil and all."

"Guess what? I won't!" Lloyd triumphantly said.

"Lloyd, we want to help you." Colette pleaded.

"Well, Lloyd's dead now." 'Lloyd' then laughed, a low laugh, just too high to be called a cackle.

"Then who the hell are you?" Yuan asked.

"You don't remember me? After you were going to be my brother-in-law?"

"Wha-?" Colette questioned.

"Mithos." Said Yuan grimly.

* * *

Mez: I'm on my own right now, 'cause Jana is watching Monty Python DVD's.

Jana: I just popped over to see what you're writing.

Mez: Well, I hope you liked the last chapter. Please R&R, no flames, etc.

Jana: Flamers will be turned to lifeless beings or be struck down by Judgment! Muhahahahahahahahaha!

Mez: Will you stop freaking them out! Now no one will read the next chapter...


	3. Chapter 3

Mez: I'm not going to say much except this: enjoy this chapter.

Jana: And we're getting Jingo to do our disclaimer.

Jingo: Kids, they didn't kill Santa.

Mez: Not that, the other one.

Jingo: Oh. Mez and Jana do NOT own Tales of Symphonia or Namco. They do own a copy of the game and Jade.

Mez: And this idea. And this turned out longer than expected.

* * *

"What have you done with Lloyd!" Colette was sounding very angry.

"You really want to know? Anyway why would I tell a failed chosen, some traitors, and an inferior being?" Mithos said

"Because," Sheena said, grabbing Mithos by his collar, "I will kill you if you don't."

"You wouldn't harm Lloyd's body, would you?"

Then Yuan realised part of the truth. "Lloyd's still alive in there, Mithos has just taken his body."

"Get out of Lloyd, now, you creep!" Sheena shouted.

"Don't you think I'd like to? I'm trapped in a Renegade base, surrounded by the people who killed me!"

"Where's Lloyd then?" Colette asked.

"Colette, we've already done this part of the question."

"Oh, right. I'm sorry."

"All right, you're not allowed to apologize anymore." Said Lloyd.

"Wait, Lloyd? Is that you?" Colette asked.

"Of course."

"Lloyd, how many Summon spirits are there?" Raine asked.

"Um...ten."

"There's eleven. Lloyd got the question wrong, therefore, he must be Lloyd."

"Um, could Yuan stop casting that spell? It's really uncomfortable."

"Well..."

"Don't you trust me?

"To be honest no I don't. But if Colette says yes I will do what she says." Yuan was very reluctant to end the spell.

"Thank you Yuan. Can we go now. I need some fresh air?" Lloyd was begging to get out of the Renegade Ranch.

Entrance to the Renegade Base.

"Thank you for whatever you did. Without you we'd never get the real Lloyd back." Colette was slightly confused.

"Yes, thank you for..." Raine was interrupted by Lloyd.

"You naive fools! You didn't realise that it was me, Mithos, simply acting stupid." Lloyd, or rather, Mithos, drew out his wings, which were rainbow coloured, and flew into the air.

Mithos started to cast a spell. Colette drew out her wings and tried to stop him. Mithos cast Absolute, creating an Ice Tornado and a massive Icicle all in one. Colette managed to avoid the attack, as she was in the air.

"You- you- how could you?" Colette's eyes were brimming with tears as she slapped Mithos/Lloyd.

Lloyd's face was thrown to the left by the force of the slap. Lloyd/Mithos faced Colette, revealing his now hollow, red eyes. Lloyd/Mithos then used Outburst in midair knocking Colette to the ground. Lloyd then flew towards the Triet area.

"Colette, are you okay?" Genis asked, concern in his voice.

"I...I'm fine," Colette managed to choke out, trying to hide the fact that she was crying.

"Colette, does it hurt that much? You're crying."

"I'm fine!" She shouted and ran into the base.

Lloyd had just found the entrance to the fire temple. However, just inside the temple, he spotted a teenage girl with a Ktugachling at her side. The girl was slightly taller than Lloyd, wearing a black prayer suit (think of Colette's clothes, but black). Her hair was long, straight and black with red streaks in. She had a confident expression on her face.

"My name is Jade. I've been expecting you, Mithos Yggdrasil." The mystery girl said.

Back at the Renegade Base, Colette was still in a room alone, crying.

_'I can't believe Lloyd would do such a thing. But, what did they mean about Mithos? Has he taken over Lloyd's body? But he's...dead. Oh, I'm so confused.'_

"Colette, are you in there? It's me, Genis." A voice from outside said.

"Come in," Colette reluctantly said.

Genis came in and sat down.

"I thought you could do with some company. Are you okay?" Genis asked, concern obvious in the young mage's voice.

"I'm fine." Colette's voice was strained. "I just...what's happened to Lloyd?"

"We don't really know. Yuan thinks Mithos has come back, but we don't know how." Seeing Colette's unusually sad face, he added, "I'm sure Lloyd's just fine."

Colette noticed Genis trying to comfort her and forced herself to smile. "Lloyd is going to be okay. We can't let him down. We need to find him and help him."

"Yeah, let's go and see what Yuan, Raine and Sheena are doing."

Back in the fire temple, Jade and Mithos were getting to know each other.

"How the hell do you know my name!" Mithos demanded.

"I know much about you, Mithos." Jade said with a smile. She was still petting the Ktugachling at her side. "If you must know, I've been looking up on you."

"Who are you anyway?"

"I already said, my name's Jade."

"But, where do you come from, why is that little fire monster tame enough to touch?" Mithos wasn't used to not knowing information.

Jade ignored the first question. "I can summon any monster I like. This is my pet Ktugachling. Anyway, don't you want to get to the seal? I can help you."

"I don't need help."

"You are inhabiting the body of the person who killed you. I'd take that as a cry for help."

"Fine, but you'd better not slow me down." Mithos didn't like this person who had just shown up.

Mithos drew Lloyd's wings out.

"Pretty impressive." There was a slight rumbling, and then a baby dragon appeared.

"You have a fascination with baby monsters don't you?" Mithos asked, noticing the link between the two monsters.

"But they're so cute."

"Cute?" Cute was the last thing Mithos wanted to be associated with. Lloyd's wings carried Mithos across the fire temple.

"Well, at least I got rid of who-ever her name was." Mithos muttered to himself.

Just as Mithos thought he was safe, Jade soared over on the back of her baby dragon.

"You can't get rid of me that easily. I'm sticking with you!" Jade shouted.

Mithos suddenly realised how useful summoning monsters could be for his...plan. The pair landed next to the portal and used it to teleport to Efreet's room.

* * *

Mez: Sorry for the delay Goldentalesgeek and anyone who's following this.

Jana: We got writers block near the end.

Jingo: I know what the plan is!

Kira: Jingo, you say anything to the people out there and...

Jingo: Uh-oh! Save me! (runs into birdcage, shuts door which automatically locks) Ha! You can't get me in here!

Jana: Why not?

Jingo: There's only one key to this cage.

Jana: And who has that key?

Jingo: (gulps) Whoops!

Mez: Anyway, please review. I know there are people out there that haven't reviewed. I know who you are. Muhahahahaha!

Jana: I thought I was the one with the evil personality!

Mez: I can be evil too! Does anyone actually read these? If you read to the end of this, please put 'Idun' in your review. That is if you **do** review.


	4. Chapter 4

Jana: This chapter is sponsered by Pure Evil...

Mez: WTF? What are you doing?

Jana: Well, I am pure evil.

Mez: (sigh) Do we actually need a disclaimer for **every** chapter? So what if we're sued? I'd just set you on the lawyers.

Jana: Yay! I've been perfecting Absolute, Judgement, Retribution, Meteor Storm...

Mez: Maybe we should have the disclaimer. (summoning voice) I call apon the annoying voice in my head, come, Kira!

Jana: Can't I use Glory?

Mez: Who's Glory?

Jana: My second muse.

Mez: How many have you got?

Jana: Look in the cupboard behind you.

Mez: (looks, has an OMG face, jaw on the floor) There must be three thousand in here! Are they all on the UNISON strike?

Jana: Yep, that's why Jingo isn't allowed to join any unions!

Mez: Can we just have one disclaimer person?

Jana: Alright, Jingo can go. And the other 2998 muses can go too.

Jingo: Nooo, I'll do anything!

Mez: Can you just do a disclaimer!(shouting)

Jingo: Sure. Mez10000 and Jana-Yggdrasil (new name) do not own Tales of Symphonia. Otherwise Namco would have an exclusive partnership with Nintendo and the authoress' wouldn't have time to write fanfiction.

* * *

Back in the Renegade base, Colette, Genis and Sheena were listening to the sensible suggestions being made by Yuan and Raine.

"Mithos can't be alive. We all saw him die." Raine insisted.

Yuan put his hand up, like a child in a classroom.

"What is it Yuan?"

"I didn't actually see him die...I need to know what exactly what happened."

"Lloyd sliced Mithos' Exsphere and sparkly stuff went into his Exsphere." Colette instantly said happily.

"Of course," Shouted Yuan. "That must have been Mithos' plan."

"What was?"

"Mithos asked Lloyd to destroy his Cruix Crystal, didn't he? The sparkly stuff was Mithos' soul, still intact, being absorbed into Lloyd's Exsphere."

"A mana transferal?" Raine gasped. "I've only heard about it once and the text was too worn to fully understand."

"It is basically transferring a conscious mind into another. There are three conditions though, both people must have a catalyst to help the reaction along."

"Catalyst? What's that?"

"A catalyst is a material which is part of a reaction, but isn't changed by the reaction," Raine explained. "I'm assuming that the catalyst was the Exsphere and the Cruix crystal."

"Yes. And the second condition is that the living person must feel regretful about the dead person's...death. And the third condition is that the dead person must have a reason for wanting to stay alive."

"What could be his reason?" Colette asked.

"Martel," said Yuan, Genis, Sheena and Raine in unison.

Mithos and Jade were talking outside the fire temple.

"Um...Thanks. Back there I would've been slightly troubled without your summoned Water elements and Lobo." Mithos was awkward around the word 'thanks', having not said it for over four thousand years.

"Slightly troubled? You would have been toast if it weren't for me!"

"I need to get to the next seal. With or without you alive."

"Mithos, what would be the point of us arguing? It's obvious that I would win."

"What! How many times have you had the power to rule the world?"

"Well at least I'm alive. You're just a soul in your murderer's body. And it's seven times that I've had the chance. I just realized what a messed up place this is. It's perfect the way it is. Anyway, I thought you needed to go to the next seal?"

"I'm not finished with you yet! I shall go to the wind seal next!"

"See ya, then!" Jade disappeared with the aid of a teleportation spell.

"Why didn't I think of that?" Shouted Mithos.

He then teleported.

Back at the Renegade base, the group were unaware that a few moments ago Lloyd's body was in Triet desert. But now, he was in Balacruf Mausoleum.

"So, now that we know why Mithos is alive, now we just need to stop him." Colette said optimistically.

"It won't be that easy Colette. We need to find out where he is, and we still don't know how to get Lloyd back." Genis hated being the voice of reason sometimes.

"When a person fulfils their reason for staying alive they will have no choice but to leave their host body."

"So, we just let him bring back Martel!" Colette was still cheerful.

"Colette!" Genis protested.

"Actually, that may not be such a bad idea. Martel is in the guardian of the tree's Martel..." Raine stopped after everyone looked completely confused. "Look, Martel is alive, as part of the Yggdrasil tree's Martel. All we need to do is alert Mithos to that fact."

Everyone finally realized what Raine meant.

"We still need to find him, though." Yuan said. "I trust the Mizuho information network knows, right Sheena?"

"Give me two minutes." Sheena whipped out a flip-top communicator and dialed a number. (A/N Sheena has a mobile phone?) "Hello Kuchinawa? It's me, Sheena. Have you got any information on Lloyd?" Sheena paused while Kuchinawa spoke. "It's a bad signal; did you say 'kiddies meal'?" She paused again. "Oh, wind seal. Okay, thanks." She hung up.

"We're going to Balacruf Mausoleum."

Meanwhile, many millions of miles away, Derris-Kharlan was drifting through space. Kratos was sitting on a piece of rubble somewhere in Mithos' castle. He had been really bored with no one to talk to and nothing to do. At first, he'd honed his fighting skills by defeating all the angels. Then he started reading all the books in Mithos' varied libraries. However, due to Mithos' IQ they were all 'Spot the dog' and 'Balamory pop-up' books. He _almost_ went insane.

"What shall we do today, Mr. Flibbles?" Kratos asked a sock puppet on his hand.

'Burn the books.' Mr. Flibbles 'said'.

"Oh, no. We couldn't do that. Who'd clean up the mess?" Kratos saw a red futuristic space ship in the distance with the words 'Red Dwarf' painted on the side.

A smaller, green ship, with 'Starbug' written on it came towards Derris-Kharlan. A brown skinned person stepped out of the ship.

"Who the smeg are you?" The person said.

"Who in Martel's name are you!" Kratos asked.

"Oh, smeg. We've gone through one of those parallel universes."

"Oh, no. I'm Dwane Dibley?" Came a voice from inside Starbug.

At Balacruf Mausoleum, Mithos had just finished revealing all the details of his plan to Jade.

"Wow you really care about your sister." Jade said quietly

"Yeah, I guess so. Martel is my whole world."

Then, Mithos saw Colette, Genis, Sheena, Raine and Yuan. Colette was carrying an item that she hoped would bring back Lloyd.

"Lloyd, please, come back. I…need you." Tears were flowing freely down Colette's face as she lay down the item on the floor.

They were the Material Blades. Mithos/Lloyd smiled and picked up the swords.

"Thank you, you have aided me greatly…" Mithos could not finish the sentence.

The Exsphere on Lloyd's hand glowed and the group could see Lloyd and Mithos.

"Lloyd!" Genis cried.

"Oh, hi guys." Lloyd said, cheerfully. "I'm sorry, Colette…"

Mithos cut Lloyd off by shouting: "Absolute!"

"Oww, edited, beeped, censored."

Colette asked, "What's a beep?"

Everyone ignored the ruining of Colette's fragile mind and focused on the fight going on between Mithos and Lloyd.

"Retribution!" Mithos shouted, casting a random effect on Lloyd. Lloyd was paralyzed.

Lloyd ran up to Mithos and punched him in the face. Mithos then countered with Holy Lance.

"Mithos, hang in there!" Jade shouted.

Mithos turned his attention to her. Was she actually trying to help him? Trying to be his friend? Another of Lloyd's punches hit him in the chest. He came to his senses. "Absolute! Ray! Judgment!" he cried making a devastating combo that left Lloyd lying unconscious on the ground.

"Lloyd!" exclaimed Colette.

"Mithos you're safe. Thank Martel you won!" Jade said happily.

"Why are you helping him? He's trying to destroy us!" Colette cried.

"Who are you anyway?" Sheena asked. "So I can carve your name on your gravestone!" she finished.

"My name is Jade, and my reasons for helping Mithos shall remain my own."

"But why..."

Colette was interrupted by "Come forth carried by the wings of hatred. Shadows combine. I summon thee Asguard dragon of the underworld!" Jade had summoned her pet dragon witch she had raised from an egg.

"Come on, let's go!" Raine was the first to come to her senses.

"Ahhhhhhh!" Genis was hoisted of the ground by a sharp black talon "Go without me!" He shouted down to his sister.

" Genis!" Rain stopped.

" Go on sis!" Genis shouted.

The group, holding Raine back, had to leave without Genis.

* * *

Mez: Why did Genis get captured? (I didn't write the end, Jana did, so I have no idea what she's planning!)

Jana: All will be explained in the next chapter...(another evil laugh)

Mez: Review please. And flamers, beware, Jana'll hunt you down with her newfound, sharp piece of wood.


	5. Chapter 5

Jana's Disclaimer: I don't own Tales Of Symphonia or Nintendo. But I do own Jade the mysterious friend that Mithos acquires.

Glory: Jana also does not own Red Dwarf.

Jingo: Or Mr Flibbles who is from Red Dwarf who is also the name of her cousins old teddy or was that hers?

Jana: Enjoy. Also I am sorry about not updating this fic in ages but I will try harder to overcome writers block. Plus I forgot to tell Mez that I had finished the chapter for her to post.

* * *

Mithos was still unconscious after his battle with Lloyd. He couldn't save enough energy for the transfer back to the body. He only had Jade to protect him.

"So boy. You are our prisoner, so tell me who you are." Jade insisted.

"No!" Genis was refusing to do anything.

"Do I have to remind you that my lovely pet dragon, Azguard, is waiting to kill you? But at the moment you have a chance to tell me what I need to know." Jade threatened.

"What do you need to know then?" Genis gave up. He didn't want to meet the teeth of the dragon.

"First who are you?"

"I am Genis Sage." Genis answered.

"Okay, now we have that over with. Where is the next seal?"

"Oww." Mithos said lifting his hand to his face. He had a black eye and a bleeding nose.

(A/N The damage that Lloyd had done to Mithos Hologram has transferred on to Mithos/Lloyd's body.)

"Mithos are you okay?" Jade's voice was full of concern.

"Yes, thank you, Jade." He had started to come to terms with the word thank you.

"So where are we going next?" she asked

"We are going to the thunder temple to get Volt." Mithos then noticed Genis. "Why is he here?"

Mithos then noticed the Material Blades lying on the ground. "Good..." he said with an idea forming.

Raine, Sheena and Colette

"No, Genis. Why didn't I do anything?" Raine was punishing herself.

"Raine it's not your fault." Sheena and Colette were trying to comfort Rain.

"Yes it is!" Rain was obviously not in the mood for anything.

"I'm going...to...help...Colette go and collect wood." Sheena said trying not to annoy Raine.

"But I..." Colette caught Raine's glare and started again " Yeah, I am going to go with Sheena to collect some wood." And ran.

Raine started to cry. She had lost most of her family.

"Mithos...why?" She questioned.

Volts temple

Mithos and Jade had started to climb up the stairs in Volt's temple.

"Why are there so many stairs?" Mithos complained.

"Mithos, why are you keeping me hostage?" Genis asked.

"Genis, we don't have to fight each other. Anything you want...after all, what are friends for?"

"Anything?"

"Your family. Your mother, father and sister, all standing by your side."

"But Vergina isn't dead."

"If I can bring back the dead, surely I can cure a simple mental illness."

"But anyway, Raine would never..."

Mithos was saved from answering by Volt's appearance.

"..." Volt's language was unrecognisable to Genis.

"He doesn't seem to be in a good mood..." Jade mumbled.

"You can understand him?" Genis asked, all hostage atmosphere completely forgotten.

"Of course. Three thousand years gives you good language skills."

Mithos ignored the two. "Volt, I humbly request a pact."

"What did you call me!"

"He called you a two-faced, lying, cheeky little brat, with no idea that Volt's about to zap you into next week." Jade translated.

"Yes, I know that, but..."

"Well, now Genis does too."

"Volt, now you shall face my wrath for a second time!" Mithos shouted, launching into battle.

Raine, Sheena and Colette

"Raine. Sheena has the location of Genis, Lloyd or Mithos and that other girl, what's her name…Jade." Colette informed Raine happily.

"They are in the thunder temple. My people saw a black dragon fly over the town accompanied by Lloyd, Genis and that girl with them Jade." Finished Sheena.

"Lets go then. I have to get Genis back." Raine said mid sob.

Mithos, Jade and Genis

The fight was over. Mithos had won. He brushed some dust off of his shoulder.

"Give me the power of thunder now!"

"..." Volt replied.

"I want the power of thunder so that I may have my revenge upon this world and those that killed me." Mithos declared.

"..." Volt disappeared.

" My plan shall come together. I only need the power of the earth and then it shall be complete. Hahahahaha."

Derris-Kharlan

Kratos was talking to a machine or a mechanoid called Kryten.

" So what's your world like?" Kratos asked

"It is full of highly advanced technology such as Holly here." Kryten pointed at his chest where a view screen was located.

"Holly?" Kratos was getting confused.

"Hi." said a floating head in the middle of the screen. It was female with blond hair.

"Her IQ is 6000 and she is main computer on Red Dwarf."

This was too confusing for Kratos.

"So what is your world like?" Kryten finally asked.

"My world is full of dragons and monsters. But there are guardians of our world called Summon Spirits." Kratos begun.

"In our world they are considered mythical creatures. And the people who believe in them are referred to as nutters."

"..." Kratos sat down. "I have no way to get back there to see my son or the new world." Kratos explained.

"Maybe Holly could help tow this place back to your world. Red Dwarf is capable of doing that task." Kryten tried to comfort the purple clad mercenary.

Symphonia

"Mithos. Now that we have all of the Summon Spirits you can complete your plan." Jade sounded worried. Mithos had a big wound through his right shoulder. They had just beaten the last of the Summon Spirits with Genis help.

"Yeah. We need to go to the Tower of Salvation."

"My sister must be worried about me." Genis sighed. He had seen no sign of Sheena, Colette or Raine since Jade's pet dragon Azguard had taken him. Since then Jade had summoned him a small pet dragon to stop him from complaining. He missed Lloyd but knew that he could do nothing about it... yet.

Renegade Base

"So you want my help." Yuan had just been told that they wanted…rather, needed his help and couldn't help rubbing it in.

"Yes, Yuan. Lloy...Mithos would have beaten all of the summon spirits by now so where would he go?"

"Why don't you try asking Mizuho? They sho..." He was cut off by a bleeping noise.

Yuan ran over to the console behind him.

"What's happening?"

"Derris-Kharlan is in range of the communicators." Yuan could not believe this." We can speak to Kratos, if he has his communicator on him, that is."

"Good idea and what will you say? Hello, Kratos, just saying that Lloyd your son has gone totally evil?" A voice only recognisable as Zelos came from behind them.

"Zelos?"

"Zelos. Kindly cease talking." A pink haired girl came from behind him followed by Regal.

"Presea, Regal?" Sheena ran up to Zelos.

"Hi, gorgeous." He smiled only to be at the receiving end of a hard punch.

"I missed doing that." Sheena walked back to where she was standing.

"We've heard the news. We need to help Lloyd..."

"…and Genis." Presea cut in.

Derris Kharlan

"We're nearly there buddy." The cat said to Kratos then adding, "You really need a fashion guide."

"...?" Kratos stared blankly at the Cat.

The Cat was a _felis sapiens_, bred from a domestic housecat. He believed himself to be at the cutting edge of fashion.

"Nice meeting you Kratos." Kryten came up to him.

"Here's your stop. Bye." The crew of Red Dwarf went back to their ship and left Derris Kharlan.

Kratos saw the world and smiled. (Yes, he smiled. It's a rare event, happening once in a millennium, but it does happen.)

The Tower Of Salvation

Mithos summoned all of the summon spirits to him.

"I want you to pass all of your power and Mana into me."

"But..."

"Just do it now!" Mithos shouted.

Nine bursts of energy flowed into Lloyd's body. Mithos cried out in pain as the summon spirits disappeared into him. Lloyds Exsphere was pulsing. A blinding blue flash came from the Exsphere. When it was over it wasn't Lloyd or Mithos that they could see but someone who resembled them both.

"Mithos?" Jade asked uncertain who was there.

"What happened?" Genis looked confused.

The figure collapsed gasping for breath. He wasn't a child; he was an adult now.

Jade ran over to him. "Are you ok?"

"...?" He tried to speak.

"Lloyd?" Genis slowly went closer to the man that lay on the ground.

"..." He tried to get up. Still rasping for breath he collapsed again.

"Stay there." Jade said taking an Apple Gel out of her bag and handing it to the adult Eternal swordsman.

"If it's not Lloyd and it's not Mithos then who is it?" A tear escaped from his eyes. His friend was never coming back. But whilst Jade was trying to help his old friend he could escape. He ran as fast as he could away from the Tower of Salvation.

Renegade Base

"Raine we know where Genis is." Yuan informed Raine after the meeting of the old friends.

"Where is he?" She asked with tears forming in her eyes.

"He is nearing the desert now. It seems he ran away, my Renegades are bringing him now."

"That's good." Raine sighed. She was relieved that he was okay.

"When will he be here?"

"Within the next 1-2 hours." Yuan was happy to see Raine in a good mood. He was probably most relieved not to be hit by her. He and Zelos had been her punch bag. They had drawn straws on who had to go in five minutes ago.

The Tower Of Salvation

"Are you okay?" Jade was worried about Mithos/Lloyd.

"..." He tried to reply but he couldn't speak.

"Write down what I should call you because I don't know who you are; are you Mithos or are you Lloyd?" she handed him a sheet of paper and a quill.

"..." He agreed by nodding and wrote**_ Just call us friend for now. We will think of a name for us later._**

"Us? Why are you speaking in plural...friend?" She was quite confused "Oh, you mean Lloyd, Mithos...Whichever one you are you mean both spirits."

He nodded.

Derris Kharlan

Kratos's communicator went off.

_There is signal here?_ He thought

"Kratos, we are activating a transporter to the Renegade Base." Came Yuan's voice.

"Okay," Kratos was relieved he would see the world again.

Renegade Base

"Genis!" Raine ran to her kid brother.

"Sis! I missed you." Genis hugged his sister.

"What happened?" Presea came up to Genis and gave him a small kiss on the cheek.

"Hi!" Genis said turning bright red. "Something happened to..." He trailed off, not being able to say much more from the sadness of losing his friend.

"What happened?" Raine asked softly.

"Mithos made a pact with all of the summon spirits and then absorbed their mana and power. And he changed."

"How did he change?" Colette asked worried about Lloyd.

"His form. He isn't Lloyd but he isn't Mithos either he's both of them... mixed." His eyes began to water.

Yuan walked in into the room followed by Kratos who was looking as if someone had stabbed him in the back.

"Yuan you told him didn't you?" Zelos said solemnly.

"He's my friend and Lloyd's father. He needs to know." Yuan patted Kratos on the back. "Genis, you're back."

"There is more bad news to tell you Kratos." Sheena looked down at her feet.

"What is the news?" Kratos looked as if his heart had been cut to shreds.

"Raine?" Sheena let Raine tell Kratos.

Tower Of Salvation

"Can you talk yet?" Jade looked down in to her friend's face.

"Yes but it hurts." Mithos/Lloyd said in a whisper.

"What shall I call you?"

"You choose a name please, but nothing too bad." He felt strange.

"I think I'll call you..."

* * *

Jana: I'm sorry I got big writers block but after playing the game again I gathered more ideas.

You will have to read the next chapter to find out the name of Mithos/Lloyd. That is also due to writers block.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of Symphonia or Namco or Nintendo.

Jana: This should be interesting.

* * *

Tower of Salvation

"...I think I'll call you...the Fallen Angel as a title." Jade chose carefully. "What do you think?"

"I like it. Thank you Jade." His voice was mixed between Mithos' and Lloyd's.

"But as a real name just stick to Lloyd Yggdrasil." she finally said "For Genis. He cared for you. But when you changed he was frightened, you took a big risk. You could have died."

Jade walked over to the wall and sat down (they are just outside of the tower) her black hair covered her face. She looked over to her friend. He had some parts of the summon spirits and some of his and Lloyds parts over him, Shadow's shoulders, Mithos and Lloyd's wings, Lloyd's spiked brown hair, Mithos' eyes, Lloyd's face He resembled Lloyd mainly but you could see he was also Mithos.

"Look. What is that?" Jade pointed up to the sky.

"Kratos is back. I should greet my father." Lloyd Yggdrasil smirked.

" He would be on this place by now. He would have left Derris-Kharlan. Genis went to the Renegade Base. So lets go there." Jade summoned Azguard she than helped Lloyd Yggdrasil on to the dragon as he could not walk properly.

Renegade Base

"There is a huge jet black dragon coming this way, Lord Yuan." A guard informed Yuan and ran off.

"That sounds like Azguard." Genis said quietly.

"Who?" Raine asked. " You mean that dragon Jade summoned."

"But how did they know we were here?" Zelos looked at Genis.

"My bag..." Genis gasped and pulled out the baby dragon.

"Were did you get that Genis?" Raine looked at the dragon with two thoughts in her head,_ 'Good research specimen,'_ and, '_That led them here'_.

"Kratos?" Yuan looked around for his comrade, who had inexplicably vanished.

Jade and Lloyd Yggdrasil

"We are in at last. Time to find them!" Lloyd shouted.

"Lloyd?" a figure in the shadows looked down at Lloyd.

"Ah, Dad..."

"You are not my son!" Kratos shouted at Lloyd Yggdrasil.

"I am Lloyd Yggdrasil. But I still am your Lloyd, partly." Lloyd sneered up at Kratos.

"You may be partly, but to me you are Mithos, not Lloyd. You are nothing like my son."

"Then let's fight. I would have no quarrel with you but if you insist on refusing my kindness then you will face the Fallen Angel. And you shall have no mercy." He laughed ad he pulled out his wings. The started off blue and ended in a rainbow colour.

"Is that your new title, Mithos?" Kratos asked.

Lloyd flew up into the air. He dived swords drawn at Kratos who jumped out of the way.

"LIGHTNING BLADE" Kratos knocked Lloyd out of the air. And ran at Lloyd Yggdrasil.

"You pitiful fool, Kratos." Lloyd said before casting Indignation Judgement.

The attack left Kratos dazed and on his knees, completely vulnerable.

Lloyd ran around behind Kratos and whacked him over the head with the flat of his sword. Lloyd then grabbed Kratos' wings, and in a violent movement, snapped them.

Kratos screamed in complete and pure agony, before passing out. Lloyd malevolently grabbed Kratos' hair, to pull Kratos' head up.

Lloyd leaned in and whispered, "I am your downfall…father."

From the shadowed corner of the room, a witness had remained silent, until now.

"Mithos, what have you done with my friend?"

* * *

Mez: Jana forced me to write this as she built a flamer-proof bomb shelter. She's expecting the worst. In fact I'm just about to kill her now…

Jana: I still don't know what I'll do with Kratos. Killing him would be humane to what I've got in mind.


	7. Chapter 7

Mez: I fear death, for it'll come on swift wings. (mainly for the part in the last chapter and…ALL of this chapter!)

Jana: I don't fear death because it shall come to us all…plus I'm wearing a Cruix Crystal, so I can't die.

We don't own Tales of Symphonia!

* * *

From the shadowed corner of the room, a witness had remained silent, until now.

"Mithos, what have you done with my friend?"

Lloyd turned round, and smirked. "Friend? It has been a long time since you've called anyone a friend, Yuan."

"Why does that mater, Mithos?" Yuan cried out bringing his Swallow blade up to his side.

"Please call me by my new name, Yuan. And you may be spared." Lloyd sounded as if he was completely in control.

"What name? Murderer? Looney? Pray tell me when I come to the correct name."

"No, Yuan. My name is not to be mixed with any of those words." Lloyd said unpleasantly.

"After what you just did to Kratos? You **_are_** crazy!" Yuan shouted down at Lloyd.

"Look at him." Lloyd said quietly, holding his old friend/ father by the hair. He picked the unconscious mercenary up to head height. Kratos' broken wings limply trailed behind him. Blood flowed from the broken areas of his turquoise wings.

"You! How could you do this to him? It's...disgusting, Mithos!" Shouted Yuan.

"Yuan, what's going on?" The group came running towards Yuan.

"Oh my." Raine breathed as she saw Lloyd but nearly cried as she saw the unconscious, bloody mercenary, but the figure that stood holding him up had once been a friend and his son.

"Is that what happened to Lloyd when the summon spirits entered his body?" Sheena looked horrified at the once noble swordsman. He had become contaminated with Mithos' soul. He was a mix between an older Lloyd and Yggdrasil.

Colette was on her knees crying.

"Why do you cry, failed chosen?" The merciless Lloyd asked in his mocking tone.

"You have no right to speak to her!" Zelos ran beside Colette glaring at Lloyd.

"Why not? Both of you are but failed chosens!" Laughed Lloyd, dropping Kratos.

Yuan jumped down from the balcony that he, Sheena, Raine and Genis were standing on.

Lloyd charged at Zelos and Colette but Yuan got in the way. He tried to hit Lloyd's sword out of his hand but missed and the sword went right through Yuan's arm.

"Yuan!" Zelos shouted, drawing his sword and running at Lloyd. He hit Lloyd away and defended Yuan.

"Yuan, you hurt yourself to save us." Colette sounded shocked at the Renegade leader.

"Can someone help me take this sword out of my arm?" He asked clenching his teeth through the pain.

"I will." Lloyd ran passed and ripped the sword out of Yuan's arm. The blood came gushing out of his wound. He fell to the floor grasping his arm.

"Let's go." Jade flew in on her dragon Azguard.

Lloyd picked up Kratos, pulled out his wings and flew after the dragon.

Tower of Mana

Jade and Lloyd landed at the top of the Tower of Mana.

"So, friend, what are you going to do with him now?" Jade pointed at Kratos.

"Lock him away. Have you got anything we could use?" Lloyd asked her.

"Let me look." Jade emptied the contents of her bag. "Thumb screws, Hand cuffs, Manacles, a Cat o' Nine tails, a blunt spoon, branding iron and the items for the Chinese water torture and making a rack." Jade finished.

"Why do you carry those things around with you?" Lloyd asked with a little fear in his eyes.

"In case of an emergency." She said cheerfully.

"I'm sorry, old friend." Lloyd Yggdrasil looked at Kratos.

Renegade Base

"Yuan? Are you ok?" Genis was sitting by the bed.

"Where am I?" Yuan was confused. He had woken up in a comfortable bed.

"We are in your base Yuan. You lost alot of blood." Genis explained.

"Where is Kratos? Is he okay?" A look of concern came onto the half-elf's face.

"They took him for some reason." Genis looked sad. "I wish I could kill Mithos. He takes control of Lloyd and then changes him. He then nearly kills Kratos and hurts our feelings by playing with our minds."

"Genis?" Yuan asked after the boy as Genis stormed off.

Tower of Mana

"Is he awake yet Lloyd?" Jade asked.

It had been three days since they had abducted Kratos.

"He should wake up any day now." Lloyd sat outside the cell. He thought for a bit and said, "I hope I didn't kill him."

"What did you say?" Jade looked at Lloyd Yggdrasil.

"…?" Lloyd ran off.

Top of the Tower Of Mana 

'_I am getting feelings from him. This is not supposed to happen,'_ Mithos thought.

"Come forth Lloyd Aurion." Lloyd Yggdrasil summoned the red clad swordsman to him.

"Master Mithos." Lloyd Aurion said in a voice that had no emotions to it.

In his eyes Mithos could see the burning hatred. But soon all of his emotions would be gone. Leaving a warrior for Mithos to control. No sadness, no joy, no hatred, no love, no regret, and no pity.

"Lloyd, tell me. What are these emotions that you have given me?"

"Emotions sir?" The anger emanating from Lloyd was strong enough to unsettle Lloyd Yggdrasil.

"I felt pity for…" Lloyd Yggdrasil trailed off.

"For who, master?" Lloyd Aurion asked.

"It doesn't matter, Lloyd. Tell me, whom did you love when you were on the journey of regeneration with the chosen?"

"Love? I…I…I can't remember what love is master Mithos." He looked up at Yggdrasil and said, "But I also feel no pity, no…no need to remorse for past crimes."

"I think he's coming to, Lloyd Yggdrasil." Came Jade's voice. "Sleep, Lloyd." Ordered Yggdrasil. Lloyd Aurion returned into Lloyd Yggdrasil. Tower of Mana 

Kratos woke up, still feeling the excruciating pain from three days ago. Jade regarded him with a nasty glint in her eyes. Kratos kept his gaze away from Lloyd, which was a shame, because if he had seen Lloyd's current state, he would have recognised an expression which used to be all too common on _his_ face; confliction.

Lloyd was being especially careful not to look at Kratos, in case he found himself unable to do this. Today was the first day of torture. Jade had requested a personal favourite, the cat o' nine tails.

"Do you want the first swing, Lloyd?" She said with a malevolent smirk.

"He needs to be moved. We can't get blood in here." Lloyd tried to sidetrack the bloodthirsty girl.

"Fine." Jade was hugging her whip. She summoned two skeleton dancers, the elite from the underworld. They were to escort Kratos to a room that had been prepared for him.

The hugging-whip behaviour had freaked out Lloyd. He deliberately waited five minutes before going to Kratos' torture room, so he was sure he'd be late.

As he climbed up the stairs, he heard the sound of screaming. It could only be one person. He shuddered, took a deep breath, and continued up the stairs.

He still felt conflicted. A small part of him wanted to stop this all from happening, while most of him wanted to keep going. That small part of him argued that it was the right thing to do, and the rest of him had no argument. He was torn up inside.

He reached the room. Jade had been working for the past five minutes, but already Kratos' back was bloody.

Jade silently offered the whip to Lloyd. He took it in silence, ignoring the scream that travelled through his consciousness. Lloyd faced Kratos' back.

Me meant to swing the whip as hard as he could, but the good part of him was pushing the whip upwards. Still, the whip hit, and Lloyd found the strength of his good part diminishing.

He hit again, faster, and the good part shrank again.

He hit again and again - now getting howls of anguish from Kratos – until the good part was almost gone. Lloyd found himself enjoying the torment of Kratos. The smell of blood, the sight of fearful trembling, the shriek of agony, the feeling of utmost control.

* * *

Mez: I know that EVERYONE will be united in hunting down and murdering us, so I'll save you the bother and give you an address.

123 Fake Street,

Fugitive Road,

Hideout City,

Lemmingshire.

Mez: I take full responsibility for the whipping scene, but Jana takes responsibility for the idea of getting Kratos (poor Kratos!) tortured and for everything else in the last 2 or 3 chapters.

P.S

If you hadn't guessed, Jana and I are actually Kratos fangirls! Jana just has a weird way of showing it (they either a) turn evil or b) suffer immensely) and I just come up with some really gory idea's if motivated.


	8. Chapter 8

We don't own Tales of Symphonia.

* * *

Renegade Base

Yuan sat in his office. A cup of coffee sat on the table. He held his communicator by his ear.

"Yuan, we have locked on to a faint mana signature. It seems that it belongs to Kratos."

Tower Of Mana

The guards – once again skeleton dancers – led Kratos into a different room than yesterday. The first thing he noticed was the stoked fire in the hearth crackling away sinisterly. Lining the far wall were various iron rods with shaped ends. Kratos recognised them and put two and two together.

As usual Jade was early in. Kratos had been secured by several chains, so he couldn't move his arms or legs. He hadn't been allowed to wear anything on his torso, but although his six-pack was exposed to the air, it had a sheen of sweat from his fear.

Lloyd walked into the room. Lloyd and Jade had agreed not to say a word, so they simply nodded slightly in greeting.

Jade walked to the selection of pokers, chose one and stuck it into the fire. Once satisfied that it was hot enough, she removed it from the fire, crept behind and stuck it in the small of Kratos' back.

He had started today determined not to cry out, not to give his torturers the satisfaction. Now, his resolution was being tested to the very limit. Only by gritting his teeth did he manage to suppress the first cry.

Lloyd's turn. He chose a poker with a flat broad edge. He heated it in the fire until it glowed red-hot. Kratos set his jaw as the poker came nearer to his exposed arm. The slightest shout accompanied the painful searing of flesh. All through this though, he never looked at Lloyd, for fear of what he would see.

Lloyd was determined not to look into Kratos' face. He couldn't have emotions surfacing now.

Kratos managed not to cry out for the first few, but by Lloyd's third poker, Kratos had descended into full screams.

Kratos lost count of the amount of times he'd been burnt, but the last would stick in his memory forever. Jade got an elaborate poker, much bigger than the others. It was only as it was carried towards him that he realised it was in the shape of the Derris Emblem. This bigger burn went over his chest, where they'd deliberately left some room.

'_I'm branded.'_ Kratos thought through the pain of scorching skin. _'Property of Cruix; reminding me I should never have left.'_

Renegade Base

"Yuan, when are we going to help Kratos?" Colette asked. She had been crying for four days.

"As soon as we can, Colette. We just need to confirm his location." Yuan looked at the girl.

Colette walked out of Yuan's room.

Yuan's communicator went off. 

"Yes?" Yuan awaited the information readily.

"We have been hearing screams from the Tower Of Mana."

'_Screams? What's going on?'_ Yuan thought. "Thank you for the info." He said distractedly.

Tower Of Mana: Kratos

Kratos sat in a small, dark room. His back was red and raw after the burning and being whipped by Jade and Lloyd Yggdrasil. He was looking at a burn on his arm. It said TRAITOR. He sighed and tried to ignore the pain from his body.

'_When will this torture stop?' _Kratos thought. _'What fresh horrors will…that thing create? And why is that girl with him? She isn't even a half-elf.'_

The room had been sealed with magic, which could only be unsealed from the other side of the door. From now, until the morning, Kratos would be alone in the darkness, the silence only broken by his voice. Kratos was smart enough to know that this was part of the torture and instead of giving into the fear, pain and darkness; he attempted to think of happy thoughts.

However, every good moment in his life had being tainted by a later memory.

The memory of Anna, that he thought could never be sour; was soured by the fact that he had killed her.

The fact that he had Lloyd, was ruined by the fact that he was now lost within Mithos.

He realised that every good thing in his life had been taken away so forcibly that even the memory of it was tainted.

Outside the Tower of Mana

The group had flown to the Tower, landed, tried the door and discovered it doesn't work anymore.

"How are we going to get in?" Zelos asked.

"How did _they_ get in?" Genis asked. He was referring to Lloyd and Jade.

"There's a way in from the roof, right?" Sheena asked.

"We can't get up there then." Genis said.

"The angels that are here will be able to carry the group." Yuan pointed out.

Raine thought quickly. "It'll leave some people behind."

"We can come back for them."

They decided this idea was best, so Colette flew Genis up, Zelos flew Sheena up (for obvious reasons) and Yuan flew Raine up. Upon landing Sheena gave Zelos a whack round the head.

"What was that for? I didn't do anything!" Zelos protested.

"You were thinking it."

Jade opened the door and stepped through. Then she realised that the group had come to save Kratos, so summoned six Neviros – gargoyle-like creatures – and ran to tell Lloyd.

The group started to fight the stone creatures.

Tower of Mana

Two Pharaoh Knights grabbed Kratos roughly, dragging him to the next room. On the previous days, he had tried to walk, but today, he made no effort.

The room was almost black. In the half-light he could make out a chair and a mirror hovering in mid-air. The mirror looked like something out of a nightmare. The fame was blood red and decorated with sinister-looking eyes. A skull was attached to the base of the mirror, and a gremlin – 'real or fake?' Kratos wondered with Jade's ability in mind – was perching on it's top.

"This is the Fiend's Hand Mirror." Lloyd said from a corner.

Only Lloyd was there. Jade had refused to come, saying this form of torture was, 'Too wussy.'

Kratos regarded the mirror warily. Colours started appearing on the silver surface. A familiar scene unfolded, and Kratos felt himself unable to look anywhere else.

"_So, where is the next seal?" A girl cheerfully asked._

_Kratos remembered the scene from one of the previous journeys of regeneration._

_Angels swooped from the sky. _

"_There are orders to eliminate the current Chosen. She is worthless to us now."_

"_Damn." Kratos murmured._

_The angels attacked the group, first focusing on Taela. Taela noticed they weren't attacking Kratos, but in her naïve way (she was Colette's great great x6 aunt or something) she thought they had just forgotten him._

"_Kratos! Help us!" Despite Taela's plea's Kratos' sword remained sheathed._

"_What's going on?" She asked, bewildered._

"_He's a traitor." Sylvanas, the intelligence of the group said._

_Traitor…that word stung Kratos, like it would hurt him for many years to come. _

"_Kratos?" She asked before an angel ruthlessly sliced her throat._

_The other travellers fell helplessly before the angel's weapons._

Kratos was allowed a few seconds for the memory to sink in before the mirror showed another memory.

* * *

Mez: Not exactly where we wanted to stop, but it's long enough, it works and it gives you a very mild cliff-hanger. I'm kinda by myself to end this, but Jana was with me while writing, and has something planed for later… 


	9. Chapter 9

Regeneration 9.

Me: I, Jana Yggdrasil own nothing except for Jade the plot and the entire inferior world! Mwhahahahaha!

Glory: Jingo's getting annoying. He stole my mini Kratos doll.

Me: Don't interrupt. Time to replace Jingo with... Lloyd and Kratos.

Glory: Yes, but Kratos is going to get annoyed with you torturing him and turning his son evil.

Me: Who cares? (summons Kratos and Lloyd)

Lloyd: What the beep?!

Kratos: Don't use that language Lloyd.

Glory: Yay, Kratos is better than a Kratos doll. (Hugs Kratos)

Me: Glory, don't kill him. Oh, by the way Mez10000 has been on holiday so I wrote part of this chapter by myself.

* * *

A new image appeared on the mirror.

_" Kratos, come here. There is something I wish to show you." Mithos pulled Kratos into a room._

_"What now, Mithos?" Kratos looked around the room. A human stood in the room with a small crystal attached to his arm._

_"Look what happens when the Exsphere comes off. Go on, Kratos take it off that inferior being."_

_"..." Kratos extended a gloved hand to the man. He pulled the small Exsphere off of the man's arm._

_The man's skin started to change colour to a murky greeny-brown. His arms elongated and his face changed the main features gone. His eyes were now no more than yellow blobs._

_Kratos backed away from the creature, horrified._

_'Kill me,' the voice of the man begged as he swung his arms at Kratos._

_"..." Kratos sliced the creature and watched as it changed back into a human lying limp on the floor._

Out of the mirror

"They are here." Jade panted as she burst through the door.

" How many?" Lloyd hissed at her as his fun torture was interrupted.

"Six. Colette, Zelos, Yuan, Raine, Genis and Sheena."

"I will deal with the rescue team."

"I will deal with the Renegades and the other two, Regal and Presea." Jade ran off to the door.

The fiends hand mirror

_What Kratos saw next was the cliff where Anna fell with Lloyd and Noishe._

_"Kratos! Help!" Came Anna's voice._

_"Anna!"_

_"Give me the Angelus Project, human!" Said a voice so filled with disgust, it could only be one person._

_Kratos turned around and saw Kvar holding Anna's wrist about to pull off the Angelus project._

_"Leave my wife alone, Kvar!"_

_"Bad enough that you should abandon Cruxis, and take the Angelus project. But falling in love with it, Kratos?" Sneered Kvar._

_"I'm warning you, Kvar! Leave Anna alone!"_

_"I will... after I take this. Hahahahaha!" Kvar removed the stone from Anna's hand._

_"..." Anna's arms elongated. Her skin turned a murky green with pulsing yellow veins. Her face changed so that the features disappeared, the only things left on the face were the yellow eyes. It was only recognisable as Anna because of the tattered rags that were her clothes._

_"No Anna! Kvar, I'm going to kill you for this…" Kratos charged at Kvar but was intercepted by Anna._

_"Kratos. Take Lloyd, please." Anna pleaded, only able to use her voice. She could not control her body. She then charged at Kratos swiping at him with her elongated arms._

_"No, Anna, I won't hurt you."_

_"Kratos, you have to. I might hurt you or Lloyd…" She took another swipe at Kratos. She then turned around towards Noishe._

_Noishe howled and jumped aside holding the baby Lloyd in his mouth. Noishe then jumped up at Kvar, who dropped Anna's Cruxis Crystal. Lloyd's inquiring hands picked it up. At that moment Kratos slashed Anna who fell over the edge of the cliff. She grabbed on to Noishe who was holding Lloyd._

Lloyd's POV

My eyes met with Kratos' and a weird feeling swept through my body.

'_What is happening?' _I thought as I fell to my knees.

Pain coursed through my body. I looked up to see the door crash open.

Normal POV

The door crashed open. Splinters of wood flew everywhere.

A teenage boy and girl appeared. They were both around the age of fourteen. The girl had shoulder-length, brown hair. The boy had close-cropped black hair.

They surveyed the scene with confusion.

"What's going on?" The boy asked.

"Beat's me. Why is Kratos looking at that mirror?" The girl replied.

She walked over to Kratos and waved her hand in front of his eyes. Kratos didn't blink, caught up in the spell.

"This is weird." She stated.

The rescue team came through the broken door.

"Nia! Stephen! What are you doing here?" Genis asked.

"We came for a visit. What's happening? Lloyd looks, um...strange." The girl, apparently Nia said.

Everyone turned to Lloyd who was still on his knees, hunched up in pain.

"Maybe we should save the explanations for later."

Kratos POV

The mirror started to show random images from Mithos and Lloyd's life. The first time Lloyd scraped his knee, Mithos wielding the eternal sword and splitting the world, the first time Lloyd had Dwarven Pot Luck surprise, the time Mithos was fighting in the Kharlan war and more flashed before my eyes.

Suddenly I found myself able to look away.

Normal POV

Kratos looked around the room. He saw Lloyd, the rescue party, Nia and the other boy, who he remembered as Stephen.

"Who are they?" Yuan asked.

"We'll talk later. Can you get us out of here, Yuan?" Nia asked.

Yuan teleported everyone in the room into the Renegade Base.

"I'll take Lloyd to a containment chamber. I want some answers afterwards." Yuan said.

"Containment chamber?" Nia asked.

Raine spoke. "Yuan told me that they were based on his magic to immobilise people."

"But what has happened to Lloyd?" Stephen pointed towards the Containment chamber.

"Mithos has somehow taken control of Lloyd using his Exsphere. He then made a pact with all of the summon spirits except for Origin and Maxwell." Raine explained.

"But why does he look different?"

This time Genis spoke "He absorbed the power of the Summon spirits, and then he changed."

"This girl – Jade I think her name was – she was helping Mithos." Raine said.

"Describe her." Nia said quickly.

"Hmm that's easy. That dark beauty has long black hair with red streaks, a pale face, blood red lips, green eyes, wears a black and red prayer suite and can summon things." Zelos smiled as he listed her features.

"Jade!" Nia and Stephen shouted in unison.

"You know her?"

"You should know her too. You know when...oh forget it, you just know her, okay? We'll work on your memories later."

"Delicately put, Stephen." Nia said sarcastically.

"Quit it, Nia."

Jade's POV

I watched as the Renegades, Presea and Regal left.

"Where are you going?" I jumped down from my hiding place.

"You are the one who kidnapped Genis and Kratos," the girl named Presea stated in a monotone voice.

"So what if I am? What are you going to do about it?" I think it is time for them to meet my favourite weapon.

"This!" Presea ran at me her axe ready to attack.

"Time to whip..." My weapon came out my lovely black whip. The handle is the shape of a wolf's head with sharp blade's sticking out of it's head like a mane "...and kill!"

One of the renegade's got in the way. Suddenly his head was separated from his shoulders.

"An ordinary whip would not be able to perform that attack and end up with those results." Regal stated coming into action.

"You are absolutely correct, Regal. Maybe you would like to see my little secret…" I put some of my Mana into my whip revealing a Scythe blade. "Do you like it?"

I love this world. Maybe someday I could get all of my memories back. I can only remember 3000 years of _my _full memories and small periods of memory before that.

"You know that I really want to know if people care for you two. Not many people from Earth like you." I threw my hand into the air and a huge black cloud started twisting it's way like a tornado towards me.

"Come forth carried by the wings of hatred. Shadows combine. I summon thee Azguard dragon of the underworld!" (Second time I have used the chant) As you might have guessed my lovely cute pet dragon Azguard was materialising from the black funnel of the cloud. (Jana: New way of appearing because it's the first time I have actually summoned him outside. Mez: She just wanted a way to change it once she got a new idea!)

"Run!" I heard the Renegades shouting and swearing as Azguard flew down from the sky.

"Good dragon. Remind me to feed you better things, let's try to get us an important leader. Or even destroy an entire town." I received some images of a burning town or city.

"Can I kill this one?" My dragon asked. (Yes, he can speak our dialect)

"Not yet, but you can play with them. But don't kill the pink haired girl or the blue haired, tall nobleman." I saw Azguard sneer at the Renegades.

" I will deal with these two. You have fun."

I spun my whip/scythe around my head and started to cast.

"Come Hound of the Icy maiden! I summon thy, Fenrir!" The blue and white wolf appeared to my right.

"Crescent moon!" Ouch! I mentally scolded myself to never turn my back on an axe lady and a man who knows how to kick hard.

Again I spin my whip around my head and start to cast again, or summon, however you want to put it.

"Come Hound of the Hellfire. I summon thee, come, Ktugatch!" the red and orange hound appeared to my left.

I lashed out my whip and sent a passing renegade's head flying.

"My reunion…that you've been dying to watch." I just had to say that. Maybe it was the countless times on Earth that I had watched Final Fantasy VII Advent Children. (I don't own)

I pointed at Ktugatch and Fenrir, a Red light appeared around my left hand and a Blue light around my right. I then placed both hand's in front of me towards Azguard. A black glow appeared around my body.

"Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust.

Feel the memories of millennia come back.

Through these three,

Energy, come to me!"

The energy of Azguard, Ktugatch and Fenrir absorbed into me the same way as the summon spirits absorbed into Mithos/Lloyd. A helmet appeared on my head in the shape of a dragon. It was black like Azguard, it had the spiky mane of the Ktugatch and the horns and the four red eyes of the Fenrir.

On my left arm was an orange and red gauntlet with the markings of the Ktugatch and on my right arm a blue and white gauntlet in the pattern of the Fenrir. My chest was covered with black scale armour with grey markings like tiger stripes down the back.

Finally my boots (or greaves is it?) were the same as the gauntlets. But with dragon feet.

"I have come." And to complete the mood I unfolded my wings, which were black with slightly metallic ends witch were like knives.

"You shall tell me where they have taken Lloyd or you shall die." I said in a calm deadly voice.

Normal POV Renegade base Flanoir

"Bad news. My men never returned from the Tower of Mana, neither has Presea or Regal." Yuan stood in the meting room where everyone had gathered.

"Three guesses who did that." Mumbled Stephen.

"What do you mean?" Genis' face was tear stricken and red.

"Well, who do we know who has an evil complex that big who isn't Mithos?"

"Wow, Stephen, you actually know some long words, and have some working brain cells." Mocked Nia.

"Hey, at least I'm trying. And this is not the time!"

"Jade can't have gone that far, well she did have that huge collection of Demonology books and she had a dragon. Hey, I still have some of her books that we…um…borrowed from her house."

"Um, didn't we break in and steal some books?"

"Shut up, Stephen" Nia said through clenched teeth.

"Oh, yeah, we borrowed them. I thought you took them back."

"Um anyway, moving on here. These books are only some of them..." Pulling out five books "…they are on memory loss; recovery of ancient past; summoning your past; how to summon from the dead; and finding out enemy secrets and summoning their hunters. Hey, that last one sounds like the sort of thing that could bring..."

"Naois…here." Stephen finished the sentence in a scared tone.


	10. Chapter 10

Mez: We don't own Tales of Symphonia. I own Nia and Stephen; Jade owns Cruxis/Jade (whom she's starting to confuzle me with her history!) On with the fic!

* * *

Outside the Renegade base – Jade's POV

"Those are mine, you worthless mangy..." I looked down into the room through a convenient skylight.

"Mmmph" I turned towards my captives. How dare they interrupt me?

"By Loki, silence your tongues." I snapped at Regal and Presea. I had tied and gagged them.

"Why don't I just kill you pitiful fools?" They looked at me in fear as I brought out my Whip Scythe.

"Jade?" I turned to see that Nia and Stephen were standing in front of me.

"My name is not Jade. My name is Lady Cruxis you inferior fools." I looked at their reaction. To bad I don't have a camera.

"Cruxis?" Nia, rather than being fearful was confused.

"When I departed from this world, Mithos named his organization after me."

"But you were never from Symphonia!" Nia insisted. "Remember, Reality?"

"I'm not from Reality or Symphonia. I was born as Cruxis of Rafer in Agorned."

Nia and Stephen both gasped.

"What's the matter, Stephen? Is it that you thought you'd never have to pay for destroying my homeland?"

"Stephen didn't intentionally destroy Agorned. He's regretted his mistake ever since it happened." Nia protested.

"The fact remains: my home is gone. My family, my bloodline, everything gone, ceased to exist in memory even!"

"I'm sorry. You're all alone…I know how much that can hurt." Stephen said sadly.

"You think I'm alone? Fools. I have Lloyd Yggdrasil – none of you will keep him away from me for long!"

"But he can't understand how you feel. He can't understand the pain of losing an entire world."

I allowed myself a smile – they had no idea how wrong they were…

"He can understand. He's suffered exactly the same loss. After all, he was born in Agorned, too."

"What?" Nia's voice was filled with tones of disbelief. "How? That's not possible."

"Agorned was nice enough, but I wanted more. After giving my followers instructions on how best to conquer Agorned, I travelled, along with Mithos, to Symphonia. Unfortunately, he got memory loss – my way of travelling through worlds seems to do that – and completely forgot where he came from. Before I could perform the ritual for him to regain his memory, he got emotionally attached to a half-elven girl called Martel.

"In his state, he seemed to think that Martel was his sister. Well, I just couldn't bring myself to tear him away from her. In the end, I helped him by modifying the memories of Martel, Yuan and Kratos. I left Symphonia soon after that. I roamed Reality as a Protozoan, until I felt the time was right and I transformed back into my human form. I wasn't concentrating on what I was doing, so I lost my memory too. And then I met _you_."

"So, after that, you worked on getting your memories back. Then you came back here."

"Yes. And now I remember Uncle Kratos, Uncle Yuan… and what happened to Aunty Martel." I looked at Stephen wondering what would affect him the most in terms of torture.

"Uncle!!? But if Kratos was known as that to you during the Kharlan war why did you torture him?!" I turned to see the ToS group minus Lloyd, Regal and Presea.

"I what? I would never…I…" I held my head in my hands the voice that had haunted me since materializing in Reality…It wasn't Cruxis as I had thought it was, but someone else.

* * *

Jana: That wasn't where it was going to end. It was meant to be longer but Mez said Cliffy so I agreed. Don't hate me! It…it was Mez! Anyway Let's talk with my OC Jade or rather Cruxis of Rafer now.

Cruxis: …

Mez: Can you talk? Or are you just shy?

Jana: Say something please Cruxis.

Cruxis: Why should I talk to you Inferior fools?

Jana: Mez and I decide weather you get Mithos back or not…(Smug look)

Mez: Good one.

Jade: Fine. I will act as your muse with Uncle Kratos and Lloyd…

Jana and Mez: Uncle Kratos??? 

Jade: It just slipped out. You do it sometimes.

Jana: You got me there. But now I'm going to have to make up a plot to go with it. (Start to sulk)


	11. Chapter 11

Jana: I do not own any thing to do with Tales of Symphonia.

Mez: Cheats!!!

Jana: I let her play WarCraft II. I also told her the cheats. (Head in hands) She is addicted! I should have known not to let her play it after her addiction to Diablo and Diablo II.

Mez: Cheats!!!

Jana: Oh god. (Sigh) Put the damn disco cheat on! (Game disco music) That's better.

Lloyd: Here is chapter 11 of Regeneration.

Jana: Good slave.

Mez: (Looks up from WarCraft) He's your _slave _now?

* * *

" Who are you?!" Cruxis cried, confused.

Yuan, exiting his base, ran up to her. "Cruxis!" He shook her.

"Help me," She gasped.

"I'm trying, just tell me what's wrong." He pulled her close to him.

"Get away from me!" She shrieked, her voice sounding younger.

"I'm only trying to help you, Cruxis." Yuan hugged her tighter.

"Not you!" Cruxis pushed Yuan away. She staggered back clutching her head as if in agony.

"You've gone mad!" Stephen shouted rashly.

'_Kill him for insulting us…_'

"Oh, unholy one, …" Cruxis started to cast.

"Cruxis, stop it! Stop the spell! You'll kill us all!" Yuan shouted in terror.

"…cast thy corrupting darkness upon these pure souls, Go to hell! UNHOLY JUDGMENT!!"

Dark rays of judgment rained from the sky, and where each one touched the ground, jaws of earth sprang from the ground, swallowing up anyone close enough.

Stephen held back the earth part of the attack as best he could, but seeing as it was magic, he couldn't do a lot.

"Run, Uncle Yuan. Unholy Judgment centres in on me… a centre pillar of darkness will hit me! I might be okay but you would probably die if it hit you!" Cruxis attempted to push Yuan away.

"No, I won't go. We won't loose you again, Cruxis. You and Martel gone…that's what caused Mithos to go insane! Listen to me! Cancel the spell and no one will get hurt. We'll look after you again, you remember: everyone looks out for each other. It doesn't matter what happens, we'll stay together." Yuan again pulled Cruxis closer to him.

"I…I'll try. But you should get away…in case it doesn't work." Cruxis had a sad look in her eyes.

"No. I won't leave you." Yuan held on to Cruxis' arm.

Cruxis nodded slightly. She raised her right hand up in the attempt to stop the casting.

"It won't stop!" She cried desperately.

The darkness rained downwards towards Cruxis and Yuan. The attack increased in power with every second from normal earth-bite to something else. As each deadly bolt of corrupting evil hit the base a huge gaping pit of flames would rise up followed by a giant mound of rock that resembled the jaws of a demon the flames burned through holes that made it look like eyes and nostrils. These demonic attacks were slowly advancing towards the caster who was immobilised with the mana being taken from her body to keep this unholy attack going.

"I won't let you get hurt. None of you. It doesn't matter who you are, these are my friends and they won't be harmed by your mind games with me. If I die then you will also die. You who have plagued my mind for so long, you who have driven me to do terrible crimes against those who I held dear, they may never forgive me but I shall make sure it ends…WITH BOTH OF US DIEING!" Cruxis' wings burst out from her back, blood spraying everywhere as the metal tipped wings surrounded Yuan like a shield.

Cruxis still had her hand in the air channelling mana into the attack. A blue mist encircled her arm as a long snake-like black leather whip coiled around her arm; the wolf head grew menacing fangs and a spiky bladed mane appeared on the top to slash anyone who snuck up behind her.

"Cewch i fi cusgu pan mae hun drosto." She spoke in Reality's Welsh language but Symphonia's Angelic. Nia heard these words and tried to run towards Cruxis but was held back by Stephen.

"Cruxis!" Nia shouted.

She understood Cruxis message – she would sleep when this was over… 

"What's the matter?" Stephen said – he'd understood the panic in Nia's voice, but he couldn't speak Welsh too well.

Nia ignored Stephen, looking on helplessly.

"I must end this madness, do not try to stop me." Cruxis closed her eyes as the centre pillar came crashing down on Yuan and herself. A dark cloud hovered for a moment before disappearing revealing a huge dome of earth that resembled a demon's face the evil red eyes glowed menacingly and then the mouth opened and disappeared back into the ground.

"Cruxis?" Stephen let Nia go from his tight grip. "Yuan?" She ran towards the two.

"Cruxis! Come on, girl, wake up." Yuan was shaking Cruxis desperately, trying to get her to wake up.

"Mithos." She moaned.

"Cruxis?" Nia asked carefully propping Cruxis up.

"I said I would sleep when this was over…I'm sorry about all of the trouble I caused."

* * *

Jana: Sorry about the long wait. I hope there are some people that are reading this.

Mez: Same here. I was kinda busy with my other fics, and homework, and exams...But we've written most of the next chapter at lunchtimes, so it shouldn't be too long until it's up! (of course, when we say 'too long' it can mean a month or two.) sigh


	12. Chapter 12

Mez: I...we...are so sorry this has taken so long! I beg forgiveness of everyone still reading, so SORRY GUYS! And so you aren't too lost, here's a summary of last chapter(I think **I **need this!):

Cruxis' demon/insanity/whatever started using Unholy Judgement, but Cruxis tried to stop casting it halfway through. The result being a knocked out Cruxis, and a worried/scared group.

Disclaimer: Do we look like we own Tales of Symphonia? 'Cause we don't, okay?

* * *

Sometime later, in the Renegade base

Cruxis was beginning to wake up, much to the relief of Yuan and Nia. Everyone else seemed to be wary of her, though.

"Mithos," She muttered quietly.

Suddenly, her eyes snapped open, for a second losing the normal green colour, and turning blood red…

Nia's POV

I saw Jade…no, Cruxis, coming towards me. For a second, I was stunned. How was I supposed to counter-attack one of my best friends?

Cruxis only needed a second. She raised her hand – casting a spell – and then, all I knew was black.

When I regained consciousness, Cruxis was looking at me.

"Are you all right? They didn't hurt you, did they?" She said, voice full of concern.

Wait, who's this 'they'?

A blur of colours and sounds – memories – met my unspoken question. I felt so…alone and isolated all of a sudden…

My parents…my own parents had tried to drown me, even after knowing of my powers…and Stephen…

_Naois was closing in on us with every passing second. We had already suffered a crushing, catastrophic defeat at her hands, barely escaping with our lives – and if we weren't careful, we'd soon lose those too._

_Suddenly, the ground rose beneath my feet and tripped me over. Then, Stephen, summoned water to my feet, burning away the skin and making it so painful that I couldn't even run. But despite **knowing** that I was going to die, the worst feeling inside me was knowing that Stephen – throughout all this time – had betrayed me, when I'd trusted him, when we'd fought alongside each other._

_As if to confirm my worst fears, Stephen turned to Naois._

"_My side of the deal is complete." He said with a cold smirk._

_Naois gave a humourless smile, "Very well. I shall leave you in peace."_

I was blinking back tears from the harsh reality of the memory.

"How could he do that? I thought he was a friend…I thought I could trust him."

"We all make mistakes, Nia." Cruxis said.

"But why? What would make him sell me out like that?"

"He envied you. He hated you because you were better at controlling your powers than him. Just like the rest of the humans." At 'humans' her words reminded me of my parents. "They hate you because you're different. Because you're better than them."

"But why don't you mind, then? Why don't you mind that I'm different?" I was aware that I must have sounded so arrogant and selfish just then, but it seemed to be the only thing to say.

"I am hated by people, just as you are. They fear me because of my own power, and simply who I am. My old friends," Cruxis looked away, "they don't know how lonely I am, or how much pain I'm in.

"I'm alone in the worlds. At least you had friends and family that cared for you, even if you don't anymore. I was merely a possession to my family – a thing that made them…popular." Cruxis spat every syllable of the word popular out, as if it were a disgusting word. "The only time they loved me was when I began to rule Rafer and became a fighter."

Cruxis sighed, lost in her memories. "The only happy memory I have of them was when I was ten. My mother paid attention to me. It was the first birthday when they were together with me, laughing and smiling. My mother gave me Anguish and Terror." Cruxis tapped the whip's handle; to be sure I knew what she meant. "My father gave the dragon armour."

"That birthday was the day that I left home to go to the castle. I was adopted into the ruling family."

"Wait, you were only loved once in your life…" I had a feeling that her life was a lot longer than I would ever know, yet…

"I have never truly been loved." A few tears leaked out of Cruxis' eyes and I could tell this hurt her much deeper than I would have expected.

I knew I had to console her. After all, she was a friend, and a friend in need, right? "What about your old companions? What about Mithos?"

"Do they really care for me at all? Does he…does Mithos?.." She asked in a whisper.

"You have friends. Yuan shared the hit of Unholy Judgment with you. Mithos…he named his life's work after you. They loved you, Yuan loved you like a daughter – a niece."

"And Mithos…does he still love me?.." She asked distantly.

"I really couldn't say. You need to talk to him about this."

Suddenly, Cruxis became brisker, more cheerful. "Yet another reason we must rescue darling Lloyd."

"Rescue?" I asked, then as a puzzled after thought, "Wait, Lloyd?"

"Lloyd realised that his friends were plotting against him. They feared him, just as they fear us, so they imprisoned him."

"We have to help him!" I said forcefully.

"There is the other thing…Lloyd let Mithos take him over to try and escape. But Sheena attacked him with the power of the Summon Spirits and they…joined." Cruxis bit her lip, waiting for the question she knew I'd ask.

"What do you mean by joined?"

Cruxis was freely crying at this point, and the tears that slid down her cheeks were crimson – the exact colour of blood.

"They are the same. Two minds in one body."

"Cruxis, please, don't cry." I tried to comfort her.

"Thanks." She rubbed her cheeks with her sleeves, getting rid of the bloodlike tears on her face. "Nia, I have a present for you. Here."

She handed me a smooth, jet-black orb with wisps of red. It looked like it should have been cold, like marble, but it was the same temperature as my skin. Covering half of it was a gold layer with a dragon inscribed into the precious metal, as well as runes that I couldn't decipher. They looked vaguely like the few Norse runes I'd seen in Reality.

"It's a Cruxis Crystal." Cruxis informed me.

I gasped, remembering the many conversations we'd had in Reality about flying. Other people's wings in other worlds had always fascinated me – it was almost an obsession. A well hid obsession at that, but an obsession all the same.

"I know how much you want wings. So this is a gift of friendship." I looked up at Cruxis, noticing her own Crystal was missing.

"But…I can't take this…this is yours. You need it…" I stumbled through different protests with no effect.

"I've worn it for so long; I don't need it." She sighed reminiscently. "I wore that for six thousand years. A thousand of those were in Agorned; the rest were here, and in reality. At the beginning of the Kharlan War, Mithos and I met the rest of our companions and I gave them their crystals. We all used them until the end of the war…and then, past that to now. Time just flies…" Cruxis smiled weakly at her small joke.

"Thank you." I said warmly and gratefully, before wrapping Cruxis in a tight hug.

"I can't…breathe…hugging…too tight!" Cruxis gasped out.

"Oh, sorry!" I stopped hugging her.

"By the way, it helps to _equip _the Crystal." Cruxis pointed out.

"Oh, yeah." I placed the Crystal, mount-side down on my lower neck.

"I'll teach you to use it properly later. But for now, we must save Lloyd Yggdrasil from those that used to call themselves his friends."

**In the Renegade Base**

Stephen punched the nearest wall in anger. "She took Nia." He said through clenched teeth.

Yuan looked at him disapprovingly. If Stephen broke anything…

"I'm sure she's fine, Stephen." Raine said soothingly, although her own emotions felt otherwise.

A computer in the corner bleeped, sending both Yuan and Raine to look at it.

"Actually, we know she's fine." Yuan corrected.

On the screen, he could see Nia walking through the heat haze of the desert. He quickly patched into the speaker system at the entrance to the base.

He heard a guard saying, "Go fish."

"Are you gambling again?!" Yuan all but shouted down the microphone.

"Uh, no, Lord Yuan." The guard said quickly.

Yuan exhaled through clenched teeth. He'd have to remember to sack those two later…but for now… "If a half-elven girl with brown hair comes her, let her in. Understood?"

The two guards mumbled assurances that they'd let her in.

**Fifteen minutes earlier, outside the Tower of Mana**

"Nia, try and take out your wings."

I did try, like I imagined it would feel and I willed it to work. I just wanted to figure it out without help; I wanted this to be _perfect_. However, I just didn't know what I was supposed to do…

"Don't worry, I needed to be told, too. You just need to find this place within you, and lose yourself in it. It gets quicker with practice."

So I tried to find this place inside me. I'd expected it to be fiery – most people's idea of hell…but it surprised me.

It was a wooded clearing, with the full moon shining down from a cloudless sky. Wild flowers glistened under the moon's light and swayed in a gentle breeze. This breeze disturbed the flowers just so much that a group of butterflies- no, beautiful moths rose up out from the flowers, flapping and fluttering over the clearing. The cloud of moths fluttered over a couple of boulders, and then over…a stream? It was a small, wild stream, something that came down off the mountains and gurgled and splashed…why was it here, of all places?

As I felt something soft, yet firm slide out of my back, my sight of the wooded clearing faded, and I realised that it was a balance, my opposite. The earthy wood and the boulders to my air…the liquid stream to my fire…the secretive moonlight to my honesty…

I looked at my wings. They were beautiful, a pristine white.

"But…" Cruxis started, then realised I wanted to savor the moment.

I touched my wings gingerly with my fingertips, half irrationally thinking that if I touched them, they'd disappear, like a dream. Of course they didn't disappear, and they felt warm and soft as a chick's down.

Sensing that the moment had passed, and unable to keep quiet a moment longer, Cruxis said, "But they aren't supposed to be _feathered_."

They weren't normal seraph's wings; they were feathered, like a lesser angel. However, they were so pure and dazzling, they almost glittered as you looked at them, and you knew that they were special.

"I don't mind. I have wings…I feel so free."

"Why don't you try flying?" Cruxis said with a smile.

If she thought I'd make an idiot of myself, she was wrong. The one thing my wind powers had taught me to do really well was to adjust to any situation involving air. Although it was different, flapping the wings on my back, compared to flapping a bird's wings, I quickly became familiar with this method of flying, and nothing could have persuaded me to take bird-form before I flew again.

"Now, I believe we have Lloyd Yggdrasil to rescue." I said, darting off in the direction of Triet.

Cruxis drew her own wings – jet black in comparison to my white – and caught me up.

"Just a warning, I wouldn't try to use any angelic magic. Your body should adjust quicker than a normal human's, seeing as you already don't eat or sleep, but…"

"I know. Why take the risk? Anyway, I'll still be able to feel things won't I? Emotions and the like?"

"If you choose to. I know it doesn't seem like a pretty good idea right now, but there are some situations where you'd be glad to use that."

I couldn't personally think of any, but I mumbled in agreement anyway.

Cruxis was suddenly utterly serious again. "When we're in there, you need to control your emotions. They will probably try to deceive you – pretending to be your friend."

Somehow, the very notion of them being my friend made me feel sick. "They are no friends of mine." I spat furiously.

"I know, I'm just forewarning you."

I was saved answering by seeing the Renegade's base looming up on the horizon. The desert's warmth coursed through me and made me feel…like there was nothing I couldn't do. And I **knew **we had to succeed. Cruxis put on a brave face, but I knew that if she didn't get Lloyd back, it'd destroy her.

"How about we keep you being an angel secret?" Cruxis asked.

That was fine by me. The less they knew, the better. I landed and made my wings disappear – regretfully – and walked towards the base.

* * *

Mez: Yay, Nia has wings! Sorry, that's been on my mind for ages. And suprisingly, this chapter was quite easy to write once we'd got off our backsides and _did something. _


	13. Chapter 13

Mez: People who are still reading - don't get too hopeful, because I don't know when the next chapter will be up...however, we need to finish Regeneration before I can post my new fic (as it carries on from the end, and that'd give the plot away!)

We don't own Tales of Symphonia.

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As I walked towards the base's entrance, it opened, seemingly of it's own accord. In a dreamlike and distant state, I entered the base.

To my surprise, Yuan was waiting for…me? No, he must have realised that Cruxis was coming, but then…who's side was he on?! This is all so confusing!

However, I knew Cruxis still felt kindly towards Yuan, so I told myself not to hurt him. Besides, I only needed to distract him…

"Yuan. May I distract you for a brief second?" I said politely. It was a line that'd worked for Kryten in Red Dwarf – why not me?

Surprisingly, it worked; he didn't notice the faint flash of light that signified that Cruxis had teleported inside.

Now for phase two of our plan…

I only needed to keep him here for two minutes or so while Cruxis rescued Lloyd. So, I sung!

The first song that came to mind was 19-2000 by Gorillaz, so I belted out any lyrics I could remember.

_There's a monkey in the jungle,_

_Watching a vapour trail,_

_Caught up in a conflict between his brain and his tail,_

_And if time's elimination than we've got nothing to lose,_

_Please repeat the message: _

_It's the music that we choose. _

After I'd thoroughly confused Yuan by talking about monkeys and music, I started on any other song lurking in my memory…

**Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Renegade base…(Cruxis' POV)**

Singing…that was the last thing I expected to be as a distraction. Still, if it works...

"Now evade the traps and rescue Lloyd Yggdrasil," I reminded myself as I looked around.

"Beep," came the mechanical sound somewhere behind me.

Oh shit.

The door behind me opened and a bunch of Renegades and machines stormed in. Not a match for me, of course, but I could've done without the attention. I quickly took care of them, disgusted at how weak they were.

I crept through the base, getting into more pathetically weak fights, until…

"Lloyd!" I shouted.

**Back in Nia's POV…**

I'd started on more obscure songs by now. Namely, Sanctuary by Utada Hikaru.

_In you and I there's a new land,__  
__Angels in flight,__  
__My sanctuary, my sanctuary, yeah,__  
__Where fears and lies melt away,__  
__Music inside,__  
__What's left of me,__  
__What's left of me now,__  
_

And then, another Utada Hikaru song…

_When you walk away, you don't hear me say,_

_Please, oh baby, don't go,_

_Simple and clean is the way that you're making me feel tonight,_

_It's hard to let it go…_

Then – in some ways, eagerly – Yuan broke through my singing. "Nia, we were worried about you. Are you alright – besides random singing?"

The concern in his voice seemed so genuine, that if I hadn't been forewarned, I may have believed him.

I lost the patience I realised I had been using. "You don't fool me! I remember what those…those people did! They're allied with Stephen, aren't they?!" I shouted, all thoughts about distraction forgotten.

Yuan looked just as bewildered as I'd felt a short while ago, but before he said a word, a group of people burst into the room – attracted by the noise I'd made. However, the group of people included…

Stephen. The very sight of him – even his name – made my blood boil with savage anger. I was shaking all over from the effort of keeping my anger inside.

Cruxis appeared behind me, supporting Lloyd.

"Let's go!"

I shot a dark look towards Stephen, and Cruxis knew what I meant.

"Fine." She said, almost impatiently – although her smirk showed that she was really happy to do this.

She raised her hand and Stephen slumped unconscious under a spell…but why did it look familiar? I had no time to ponder about it, as Cruxis summoned two harpies and instructed them to carry Stephen. Then, unveiling my wings, we flew out the still open door. This time – because of either panic or practice – I only caught a glimpse of the wooded clearing.

"Nia, I have my hands full with Lloyd. Could you prevent them from following?" Cruxis asked.

"Even Yuan?"

Regretfully, she answered, "Even Yuan."

**Cruxis' POV **

Once I'd asked Nia to do that favour, she turned around in mid-air, creating a vast sheet of fire, preventing anyone from following us.

Lloyd stirred a little, revived by the cold air.

"Cruxis?" He mumbled.

"You remember?" I asked, surprised, but happy.

"Only just…I lo…" He passed out mid-word.

Was he about to say, 'I love you'? My heart yearned for it to be true.

**Nia's POV**

It was a quick flight back to the Tower of Mana. Cruxis summoned several shadowsprites to guard the entrance. I looked at them curiously before going inside – they were slender navy blue creatures that were hard to pin an exact shape to, as they seemed to blend into the shadows stretching across the ground. Why did they strike up a strange sensation of déjà vu in me?

"They're creatures from my homeland, Agorned," Cruxis explained – but not really explaining anything.

I shook it off and entered. Cruxis was setting Mithos up in one of the main rooms, making sure he could rest comfortably. The two harpies merely stood around, still carrying Stephen, until I pointed them out, and Cruxis went to deal with that.

I was left alone with my thoughts. I felt elated by the flying I'd just been doing…nothing compared to it. But I was almost sickened to be in the same building as Stephen.

**Cruxis' POV**

Securing Stephen was a tricky task. Of course, I'd already had this planned out in my head. I'd dehydrate Stephen to the point that if he used any water powers, it'd kill him, and that would get him so weak that he couldn't use earth powers either. Then, just trap him like a normal human.

First we would need heat.

I'd ask Nia, but I figured that she wouldn't want to be anywhere near him right now. I didn't blame her – I'd rather be back there, tending to Mithos…Lloyd...

"Mithos," I sighed thinking of the blonde-haired Seraph.

I stood thinking of what I could use…Azguard! Yes, he needs a little exercise.

I quickly summoned him, and instructed him to carefully evaporate the fallen traitorous scumbag.

With that done, I made sure he was secured with chains, before heading back to Nia and Lloyd.

Nia's POV

When Cruxis came back, I was struck with a sudden idea. I wanted to go out flying again. She didn't mind, but wanted to stay behind with Lloyd. So, I let myself out, drew out my wings, and let the wind take me where it would…

* * *

Mez: That's too short! T.T Oh, and could Jana please write more Cruxis scenes - I'm finding it too difficult to switch from Nia's to Cruxis' POV all the time! And please review if you're still reading this!


	14. Chapter 14

Mez: Usually, I'd apologise here about how long this has taken…but I think this is actually quite quick (in comparison, anyway…) Well, Jana and I don't own Tales of Symphonia (for which, you should be grateful, as Jana would get around to torturing every character eventually. Hey, instead of a Flanoir scene, she'd probably put in a torture scene based on the friendship system!)

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­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Nia's POV

The wind blowing delicately through my chestnut hair…my pure, white wings flapping quietly behind me…the moon- and star-light glittering in my eyes…

I love nighttime…

I landed silently in the mountainous village of Hima. I had no reason to land here, just that the wind had blown me in this direction, and somehow…I had to…

I wondered how I must look to the average person passing-by. I was dressed in black, flowing material, standing in the graveyard and looking out to the mountain scenery and the starlit sky…pretty creepy when you think of it that way…

I smiled to myself, unsure why exactly I did so.

Suddenly, I felt so…nostalgic… Shouldn't there be a moving, glowing dot of turquoise there, in the sky?

_FLASHBACK_

_"Hellooooooo? Can you hear me? Answer me! Oh, well, I guess he can't hear me say that I think he's cute…"_

"_What?!"_

"_I **knew** you could hear me!"_

"_You think I'm cute?!"_

"_Um…Of course not. I was just testing to see if you heard. And it worked."_

_END FLASHBACK_

What?! I didn't remember that! But, I did… This is making my head hurt. I'm sure I was the first person speaking then, but who _was _I talking to? And why did I feel like it was so important?

Tower of Mana – Normal POV

Cruxis sat with Mithos, stroking his arm as he slept.

"Now that we're together again…I'm not sure if I should go. Nobody will accept me after all I have done," she closed her eyes and a small red tear ran down her pale face.

'Nobody deserves us. We are superior,' Cruxis looked to her left to see herself looking back.

"No. Nia, Mithos, Yuan and Kratos deserve me," Cruxis mumbled looking back at Mithos.

'Do you think Kratos will ever forgive us for what we did?' the other Cruxis whispered into her ear as another crimson tear flowed from her feline eyes.

"What do you mean by 'what _we_ did'? You controlled me! It was all your fault that he was hurt! I will never have any friends because of you!" Cruxis screamed, trying to swat away her ghostly mirror image with her free left hand.

"Cruxis?" Her screaming had woken Mithos up, and he now looked at her with concern and fear.

"I'm fine Mithos… I…I need a walk," She left Mithos' side quickly.

Cruxis crept through the shadowy hallways, her feet making little sound on the hard, stony floor. She felt hollow – there was no point in going on, no reason to continue living.

'There now,' the other Cruxis said soothingly. "You can't give up. You have Mithos back, don't you? I know what'll make you feel better. Down in the dungeons there happens to be a scumbag in need of serious torturing. Or did you forget that that disgusting piece of slime destroyed Agorned?"

"Never. He deserves to be tortured eternally for what he's done," Cruxis spat vehemently.

Her mind made up, she strode to the room where Stephen was being contained. She threw the heavy wooden door open, letting it crash against the wall.

Stephen had woken up, and was looking around wildly, a fearful look in his eyes – like an animal trapped. He noticed the malevolent gleam in Cruxis' eyes, and began to panic.

"Wh…where am I?"

Cruxis smirked, knowing silence would have the greatest physiological effect on him. She began going through torture ideas in her head.

"J…Jade…"

"You know my real name is Cruxis," She said coldly. "Do not fool yourself that I will react to my former name."

Stephen was fazed for a moment, before his exhaustion from lack of water overwhelmed him.

Being able only to croak, he said, "What did you..?"

"I made sure you couldn't escape."

"Why?" He groaned, feeling the lack of hydration in his skin.

"You destroyed my world. I shall have vengeance."

"No…I didn't mean…"

"Excuses will not bring back my home!" She shouted, throwing the nearest thing at hand – a ball of dark mana – across the room.

It hit the far wall, separating into many smaller orbs that bounced to every corner of the room, some of them landing on Stephen's exposed arms and face. He whimpered in pain as the darkness sank into his skin, eating into the small amounts of flesh it could find before it used its energy up.

Cruxis knew this'd be easy… She'd make the one who destroyed her home pay, no matter what.

Nia's POV

I stood on the edge of Hima's cliff, attempting to recapture my memories for what seemed like half the night. I'd taken in my wings – reluctantly – incase I was seen – unlikely as that felt at this late hour.

Suddenly, though, my newly improved hearing picked up the sound of breathing. I shot a small glance behind me to find it was a young girl, only about seven years old.

"Please, miss," She said quietly, but clearly addressed to me. "Please, don't jump."

"What?" I asked, puzzled.

"I'm sorry, miss, its just that you were staring at the drop for so long and standing on the edge – I thought you were going to jump."

"I wasn't going to jump. I was just trying to remember."

"Remember what?"

"If I knew, I wouldn't need to remember it. I'm sure something happened here before, something important. So, you live here?"

"Yeah. I sometimes see people jump…and hear their scream at the bottom," The girl looked away, pained. "The people who live here all the time call the bottom of the cliff the 'River of Blood'…"

No child that young should have had to see these things...

"I tried to stop you because you seemed younger – you might listen to reason."

"Yeah, well, I'm opposed to suicide and self-harm in the first place. Committing suicide would be against my morals."

The girl smiled. "Miss, can I tell you something?"

"Huh? Yeah, sure."

"There was one person who jumped off here, but he didn't drop – he flew! But everyone doesn't believe me…"

"I believe you. Can you tell me more?"

"Yeah, there was this girl with him, who turned into a bird, too!"

My eyes went wide at this, but the girl didn't notice and carried on.

"Actually, the girl looked kinda looked like you. Anyway, the man had these sparkly blue wings that he could make disappear, and the man and the girl – when she was a bird – played a flying game."

"Do you know his name?" I asked quickly; somehow, I knew it was really important.

"No, sorry. Do you know him?"

"I'm not sure – I can remember a voice…and a colour, but…I'm being silly; it could be anyone."

A note of awe crept into her voice as she said, "I think he was an angel – aren't people with wings angels?"

"I think your right. People with wings might be angels, but…"

"But what?"

"I'm not sure all angels are good…" I thought about the people supporting Stephen.

"Do you think this angel was good?"

I smiled – the warmth of my semi-remembered memory assured me I was true in saying, "Yeah."

"Are you that girl?"

I nodded after a moment's hesitation.

"Wow, that's so cool! You can just turn into birds, just like that?"

I nodded again.

"Could you…I mean, if it's not to much trouble…" The girl awkwardly tried to ask.

I got the gist of it – she wanted me to transform into a bird.

"Sure. Hold on a second."

It took me longer than I remembered – I supposed I was a little out of practice. When I'd transformed into a bird – an eagle owl – I gave a soft hoot.

"You really can turn into birds! I know I'm not dreaming – I can't dream the cold wind on my cheeks."

I turned back into a human, and watched as the girl tried to battle off a yawn.

"I think you should go to bed."

"Okay. Thank you, bird lady!"

I smiled at the remark as the girl ran back to her home. Supposing I should get back to the Tower of Mana, I drew out my wings, which now seemed an incredibly light shade of grey because of the poor light. A gasp told me that the girl had seen my wings, despite almost being back at her home.

"They're beautiful!" She gasped under her breath.

I caught a falling feather from my wings and handed it to the girl.

"Incase you think it's a dream in the morning," I explained.

Then, I took off into the night.

Tower of Mana – Normal POV

Cruxis had chained Stephen by his wrists to a roof beam, so that his arms solely supported his weight. They were already aching, and were slowly being wrenched out of their sockets, but he knew that that was the least of his problems.

Cruxis grabbed a blade from a weapon rack and eyed its sharp, shiny blade with delight. She ran the blade down Stephen's arm, creating a shallow, bleeding cut. Stephen gasped out in pain as Cruxis did the same to the other arm.

The torture continued and Stephen was soon filled with pain so intense he couldn't form a single thought. There existed nothing more than pain, and the causer of pain, Cruxis.

After what seemed like an eternity to Stephen, Cruxis stepped back and admired her work. On the inner side of his arms, Stephen displayed a crisscross of bloody lines. His face was also scratched, but not too heavily.

Cruxis smiled – it _had _cheered her up to get some small revenge, although she was by no means done yet.

"Nia…" Stephen groaned weakly.

"That's rather futile," Cruxis informed him.

"You have Nia…let her go!"

"She's on our side by her own free will. Right now, she's outside having a moonlit stroll."

"No…she'd never…"

Cruxis smirked. "She would, and she has. Admitted, I had to play around with her memories a little…"

"No…you can't…we put up protections…"

"Oh, so that's what that slight obstruction was? They were pretty weak defenses. Still, they managed to hold off Naois – I saw that in her memories. How they held for so long, I have no idea."

At the expression on Stephen's face, Cruxis allowed herself a giggle.

"I saw a lot in her memories. It's funny, but she never saw you as anything more than an annoyance until she came to Symphonia. All those worlds – and it's only in the last couple that anything's really changed."

"You can't mess…with Nia's memories…"

"I can, I have, and she's on our side now."

"No…she'll fight…she'll remember…"

"You seem so sure… Why don't we have a little wager? When Nia remembers everything, I'll stop torturing you, how about that?"

"What would…make you keep to your word? …For all I know…you could be lying."

"I could be," Cruxis admitted. "But I always keep to my word. Besides, the way I see it, it's your only chance.

Stephen looked away with a pained expression.

"Deal."

* * *

Mez: If anyone's wondering, the little girl mentioned is partially inspired by Marlene from FFVII, and partially inspired by my step-niece.

Jana: Everyone's probably more interested with what's happening with Stephen!

Mez: True. Anyway, please review, we live off them! Well…I do, Jana rarely gets to see them unless I remember to forward them…


	15. Chapter 15

Mez: Anyone shocked this is up so soon? Because I wrote it the night after I finished the last chapter - admited, I did stay up 'til midnight... Anyway, neither Jana nor I own Tales of Symphonia. Oh, and I wrote this chapter all by my lonesome!

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Nia's POV

I walked into the Tower of Mana, sending a ball of fire in first to warn them it was me. Cruxis and Lloyd were just talking, and stopped when I entered.

"We decided it's time," Cruxis announced.

"For what?"

"To attempt to separate Mithos' soul from Lloyd."

"How in Symphonia are you going to manage that?" I asked, shocked.

"A ritual," Cruxis said nervously.

"Where did you get the ritual from?"

"We didn't. I had to start from scratch."

"Okay…" I mumbled, surprised. Even I knew that inventing a ritual was difficult, dangerous and was likely not to work, which is why people followed rituals laid out in books called grimoires. "Do you need any help?"

"Only in setting it up, really," Cruxis said, leading the three of us into a new room.

It was purposely bare, with nothing inside it whatsoever.

"Mithos, could you sit or stand in the middle?" She asked.

Mithos complied, choosing to stand in the center of the room. Cruxis drew out a double-edged knife while he did so.

Cruxis started explaining for my benefit. "This is an atheme, used to represent air. I'll use it to draw up a circle around Mithos."

"Why a circle? Why not some other shape?"

"Circles represent the spirit, and since this is a spell to draw out two separate spirits…"

She walked round in a steady circle clockwise three times, letting a pale, ghostly blue flame form on the end of the knife to draw the circle with. Once she had completed the third circle, the flame spread out to become a dusty blue sphere surrounding Mithos.

"Unfortunately, the summon spirits are also within him, and I need to draw those out too."

Cruxis, with small dots of her own mana placed a marker at one side of the circle, and the other end – careful not to step within the circle – so that if I were to join the dots up, I would get a straight line through the center. She did this once more, so that if the lines were visible, they'd be at right angles to one another.

Cruxis named the points – life went opposite death, and light went opposite dark. Then, in the space between life and dark, she place two markers, naming them water and ice. Opposite them dwelled fire and lightning. Then, in the space between dark and death, earth existed, and opposite earth was air.

Cruxis made an offering to each of the named markers – to water, she gave a cup, a chalice; to ice, she gave the essence of frost; to fire, she gave a long piece of smooth, natural wood; to lightning, she gave a ball of metal; to earth, she gave a ceramic talisman in the shape of a five pointed star, a pentacle; and to the air, she gave the knife, the atheme. Finally, she made an offering to her final four markers – life received a ball of pure mana; dark got a small piece of skin Cruxis cut off herself; death got blood from the same, self-inflicted wound; and light got a lock of Cruxis' silvery, gleaming hair.

It occurred to me that if you joined the four elements' markers, they not only would make a perfect square, but fire and air would be on one side of the life and death line, and water and earth would be on the other.

Cruxis took a deep, nervous breath, and began her incantation.

"I draw out the elementals – Efreet, Celsius, Volt, Undine, Gnome and Sylph. Receive these gifts, and be at peace."

Six balls of mana left Lloyd/Mithos and hovered over their respective places a moment, before disappearing.

"I draw out the essence of all things, light and darkness. I humbly implore you, Luna, Aska and Shadow, please, receive your gifts and leave."

Two more balls of mana left Lloyd/Mithos and went to their respective places before leaving too.

"I draw out the soul of Mithos Yggdrasil from the body and soul of Lloyd Irving."

A ghostly form of Mithos stepped out from Lloyd's body as it returned to normal and slumped to the ground. Mithos' spirit resisted for a second before slumping to the ground too, looking dead and lifeless.

"Eternal powers of life and death, please, receive my mana and blood, given willingly and gladly to restore life to both Mithos Yggdrasil and Lloyd Irving."

A column of energy rose from both life and death and met with a flash in the center of the circle, where Lloyd and Mithos now were.

A voice…no, it wasn't defined as a voice was, it was more a stream of concepts and ideas, limitless and as eternal as the entities they represented. These ideas 'spoke' to us.

We are unable to give them back their original lifespans – they were merged together far too long and its impossible to tell one lifespan from the other. However, we can take the total amount of years they each would live, add them together and divide them equally. I trust you have no objections?

"None at all."

The forces stopped 'speaking', and I presumed they were working on reviving Lloyd and Mithos. Then an idea of mirth trickled through.

**Oh, you _are _clever. One of them had an infinite lifespan, which is infinity divided between two people, which is also infinite. They are – if no one kills them or unless they commit suicide – immortal.**

If they were going back on their agreement though, they didn't show it. They continued working on Lloyd and Mithos until they disappeared, leaving the advice, **Let them rest.**

We got the unconscious but definitely breathing bodies into two separate rooms and – as life and death had advised us – let them rest. Cruxis added the comment: 'They have technically died and come back to life – the two most tiring experiences in life. They're bound to need a rest after that.'

"So, now what?" I asked.

"Well, Stephen needs seeing to; do you want to come?"

I shuddered. "No."

"Are you sure? You'll need to show yourself sometime."

"Fine, if I must."

Cruxis led me down to the room where Stephen was being held captive. "Nia!" He shouted joyfully.

"I have nothing to say to the likes of you!" I shouted angrily.

"Nia…you don't remember…"

"I remember what you did! And to think I trusted you!"

"I didn't…you can't remember the truth."

"If feels like the truth in my head, and I trust myself far more than I'll ever trust you again! Honestly, that must be one of the worst skin-saving lies I've ever heard!"

"But it's true! I swear!"

"Shut up! I don't believe you no matter how many times you insist it's true!"

Stephen growled angrily. "Cruxis, this is all your fault! Tell her the truth!"

Cruxis smirked. "In the depths of her soul, Nia knows the truth. Don't you, Nia?"

"Yeah. And don't raise your voice to my friend again!"

"Friend? She really has screwed around with your head. Don't you remember charging into this very room and-"

"Shut up!" Cruxis hissed urgently, panicked.

"No. We came in to this room and found someone very important to you, cut, scared, burnt and in mental pain. He still hasn't recovered."

Somehow, I knew that this man was the man from my half-memory at Hima.

"Please, his name…" I begged, forgetting all hostility with Stephen.

"No, he'll fill your head with lies!"

"I don't think so." I said quietly.

"…I should never have done this, but we were friends, I wanted you on my side, I couldn't bear fighting against you."

"What are you talking abou-" I started, only to be interrupted by Stephen.

"Nia, if you don't remember me, at least remember Kratos!"

My eyes opened wide as I subconsciously reached for the necklace that I wore always, the necklace containing angel feathers. My fingers brushed the one that I now knew belonged to Kratos, and a pleasant, roaring fire swept through my mind, destroying the false memories, replacing them with the real memories.

"I remember," I announced, somewhat surprised.

"Cruxis, you said you'd keep to your word." Stephen said.

"What?"

"When Nia remembers, you said you'd stop torturing me."

"True…" A thoughtful look crossed her face for a moment.

Then, she reached for her whip scythe, and with one sudden movement, the blade pierced Stephen's heart.

"There. Your torture has ended." She said callously.

"How could you? Just kill him so coldly?"

"He killed my world and everyone in it. I merely got revenge for those people."

"It was a mistake, surely you saw that when you were making those fake memories!"

"He never apologised. Even at the last, he never apologised. If it was a mistake, he didn't regret it. In a way, I did the other worlds a favour – now they won't have to fear his destructive words."

I buried my head in my hands and shed a few silent tears, letting them burn pockmarks into my hands. Finally, I realised that I stood in the room with Cruxis.

"Aren't we on opposite sides now?"

"I don't see you attacking."

"This is so confusing – I still think of you as a friend."

"Then stay on my side."

"I can't. Not after what you did to Kratos."

"If it helps, I'm sorry. I didn't want to…I didn't do that."

"How can you not have done it?!"

She looked away. "Sometimes, things happen that I just can't control." She shook and shuddered. "No, go away," She groaned to herself. "I shall not allow you to hurt my friend." She balled up her hands into fists. "Please, Nia. Just go. Tell Yuan and Kratos…I'm sorry. Take Lloyd with you."

For a second I was stunned, it sounded like Cruxis was struggling against herself.

"Just go!"

That spurred me into action – I ran away to the room where Lloyd was kept, and tried to pick him up. It was then that I noticed my angelic strength – Lloyd was really light, almost like carrying a mid-sized book. I carried him to the door, and spread out my wings, hardly noticing that they'd changed from white to a mottled grey.

I flew at full speed to the Renegade Base, hoping that Lloyd wouldn't wake up or stir. Although he was light, he was rather awkward to hold, and if he'd shifted in his sleep, I'd have probably dropped him.

I landed in the sandy dunes of Triet, pressing random buttons on the door system. My aim wasn't to open the door, but to alert them I was here. I knew it would panic them if I strode in – they'd probably think I was still under Cruxis' influence.

Yuan's face flashed up on a screen by the door. "Nia?"

"Yes. I brought back Lloyd. He's fine; Mithos has been removed from him. I'd like to come in, but I know no one will trust me."

Yuan thought about that, before coming to the solution, "If I cast an immobilizing spell on you, you'd still be able to speak and explain, and everyone can be assured you wouldn't do anything like attack them."

I thought about it – I wasn't keen on the idea of being completely immobilized, but I figured that whatever happened to me, I probably deserved it.

"Fine, but you'd need someone to carry both Lloyd and me."

Yuan came out quickly, casting the spell, almost as if afraid I'd change my mind. He got two nameless Renegades to carry us into the main room.

"Nia," Raine said suspiciously.

"Yes, that'd be my name," I muttered sarcastically. In a louder voice, I said, "I'm sorry for everything I've done. I'd like to blame it all on Cruxis, saying that she controlled my every movement, but…all she did was change my memories slightly. I made all the choices myself. Sorry doesn't cut it, I know. I can't even forgive myself; so what right have I to beg forgiveness?"

"Why don't you tell us everything that happened?" Sheena suggested.

So I did. "At first, Cruxis cast some kind of spell, it made me unconscious, and that's when I think my memories got altered. I believed that my parents hated me and tried to kill me; that Stephen, the only one I trusted, betrayed me; and that you lot were allied with Stephen and were plotting against Lloyd. We 'rescued' Lloyd from here…and Cruxis put Stephen under a spell to make him unconscious so we could leave. I'm sure you remember what happened there. Cruxis…she tortured Stephen and eventually…"

Tears rolled down my cheek as I announced, "Cruxis killed him. Cruxis killed Stephen."

"No!" Colette said, and while no one else said it, it was clear they didn't want to believe it either.

Yuan, as always, was practical minded, and asked, "How did you get out?"

"Stephen, before he died, managed to break the false memories that I had. After that, Cruxis just…broke down. She told me to go, before she could harm me, and she told me to take Lloyd with me. She seemed to be struggling with herself."

"I'm not sure we should trust you," Raine bluntly said.

"Professor!" Colette protested.

"No, I don't mind," I said. "I don't like being immobilized, but I deserve it. And in your situation, I wouldn't trust me either. I could have made up a pack of lies just to get you to trust me." I saw Raine's mouth slightly agape, and said, "That's what you were thinking, right?"

Composure sank back into her face. "Yes, it was. And I feel it's best if at least someone in the group is on guard."

"And Yuan?"

"Yes?"

"Cruxis says sorry, to both you and Kratos."

"I suppose you want to know if anything happened while you were…away?"

"Yes."

"Well, we were trying to work out a way of separating Lloyd and Mithos – which now seems like a waste of time. Kratos hasn't said a word. And everyone's been worried about you and Stephen."

Just then, Lloyd staggered in.

"Hi, Lloyd," I greeted.

"Nia? You got me out of there?"

"Yep. So, how do you feel?"

"I have the worst headache," He complained.

"You may've hit your head when you fell to the floor. Or, it could be because you basically died and came back to life three hours ago."

Everyone in the room was shocked, and I didn't care about secret keeping at all. "Oh, I don't suppose you heard what life and death…said, did you? Then again, technically, you were dead at the time, so that could make things…tricky."

"No, I didn't."

"Oh, then I'll break the news bluntly – you are immortal. You can only die if someone kills you or if you commit suicide, but you can never die of old age. I don't know about illness, though…"

Everyone was still shocked.

"Right…" Lloyd said shakily. "Wait, why is Yuan using that spell against you?"

"Well, they aren't sure whether they should trust me, seeing as my memories went all false and they aren't sure whether the true ones are back or not…Wait a second, if you guys think everything I said is a pack of lies, then how come Lloyd isn't under the same spell? After all, Mithos could still be in him."

Yuan let the spell end. "I think you're telling the truth. Everything you've said ties in with what I remember of Cruxis."

"Thank you. I don't deserve your trust."

Lloyd had a sudden outburst. "Don't be so hard on yourself. What did you actually do? As far as I can see, almost nothing. You helped a friend. Okay, so you helped kidnap Stephen, but she could've easily done that without your help. I had a feeling she was always going to get her revenge, one way or another. But that's it. You even had plenty of chances to kill Stephen yourself, and you didn't."

"But, I…"

"He's right, you didn't attack us, or anything," Sheena encouraged.

"Thanks. If you don't mind, I'd like to rest for a while." The truth was, I needed time to think.

"Of course." They set me up in a random guest room and left me.

It wasn't long before Lloyd came in, standing in the doorway.

"Look, Nia, thanks."

"What for?"

"It would have been easy to leave me behind."

"Not really. I'd feel guilty, and that guilt would be a lot harder to live with."

"Still…thanks. And I won't tell anyone about the Cruxis Crystal – you can just explain in your own time. But I'd tell Yuan; I think he'd understand. And Dad, when he recovers."

"Yeah. Thanks for that. It's weird, but I still think of Cruxis as a friend. If we met right now, I wouldn't attack, and I knew she wouldn't either. I don't think I can really help."

"Maybe you should talk to Genis – Mithos was his friend."

"True. But for now, I just want to sort everything out in my own head."

"Alright, I'll go."

Once Lloyd had left, I stared out the window at the desert landscape, and didn't move all night, just letting my thoughts chase themselves in circles. What could I do?

* * *

Mez: Shed loads of research went into this chapter - I created the ritual using Wican symbology and terminology (atheme), so in the unlikely event that I do have a Wica (?) reading, I appologise if I offended at all, I don't want to offend anyone. Everyone else, please review saying how shocked you are (please, _type_ 'oh my god', instead of 'OMG', I want to feel worth the extra five seconds!) Yes, writing this chapter took a lot out of me and I'm looking forward to more help from Jana _next time_... (evil glare) 


	16. Chapter 16

Lady-Jana-Sparrow: Because of all this dark stuff that's happening, Mez and I decided to add some humor in…with a little character bashing…

Mez: Please, forgive us! (sigh) We don't own Tales of Symphonia.

* * *

Yuan's office some time later

Yuan handed Colette the list of he had made - with some help from Lloyd - of words that linked to Kratos' torture.

"So all we do is not say any of these words near Mr. Kratos?" Colette smiled and walked out of the room.

"Knowing Colette she will walk over to Kratos and ask him why she can't use any of those words one by one," Nia gulped and followed Colette.

"Maybe we should check on Colette?" Lloyd ran to catch up with the blonde girl.

"I agree, let's stop her!" The others followed Lloyd.

Main room in Renegade Base

"Hey, Kratos…why can't I say fire, burn, whip, branding, Anna, death, murder…" Colette continued, oblivious to the fact Kratos was hugging his legs tightly to his chest and rocking gently backward and forwards.

"Colette!" Nia shouted. "Can't you see what this is doing to him?"

"Oh. Sorry, Mr. Kratos. So I really can't say fire, whip, branding…" With every word Colette said, Kratos flinched.

"Colette!"

"Sorry, sorry!"

Raine led Colette out of the room while she was still apologising.

"Maybe we should take Dad to his room," Lloyd suggested to Nia.

"Yeah, it looks like he needs the solitude. And the safety," Nia added, thinking of Colette.

They half had to carry Kratos to his room, seeing as he was in a fetal position and was reluctant to leave it, so had trouble walking. Lloyd put his father down to sit on the edge of the bed in his room.

Kratos looked his son in the eye, his hazel eyes being the only indication of the great pain he was suffering. Behind the pain, though, Nia noticed immense fatherly love.

Nia's POV

I had never before believed that eyes showed emotion – how could they? I believed that only the face around the eyes showed emotion – until now. Looking into Kratos' chocolate eyes, it seemed clear – almost painfully clear – that I could tell exactly what he was going through.

In a horse whisper, Kratos said, "Lloyd…"

"Dad…I'm sorry. If I'd been stronger, none of this would've ever happened. Mithos would've never got out…"

"Don't…worry…about it…" Kratos croaked, giving a weak attempt at a smile.

"Are you feeling any better?" I asked softly.

Kratos flinched visibly when he heard my voice, and looked round at me with eyes filled with dread. I felt like I had inadvertently kicked a puppy.

"I'd better go – it looks like I'm not helping things," I said quietly.

As I turned to leave, I was stopped by a strong, gentle hand on my shoulder. Noticing it was clad in a fingerless lilac glove, I knew it was Kratos.

I wondered, "But..?"

"Please…stay…"

"Really? But, you…"

"Fire…" He explained.

Of course, I was confused, but Lloyd figured it out…and I also hoped Lloyd would never figure something out before me ever again.

"He's afraid of fire, because-" Here, I nodded quickly to interrupt; I knew what tortures Kratos had gone through. "And, you basically are fire, right?" I nodded again, deep upset coming with understanding.

"Oh…in that situation, _I'd_ hate me…" I said despondently.

"I don't…hate…" Kratos directed at me, seemingly too weak to finish the sentence.

I smiled sadly – despite what he said, I knew Kratos could never truly trust me again.

"Dad, you okay?" Lloyd asked – I assumed he noticed the weariness in Kratos' voice.

"Fine…"

He received two sceptical glances.

"Tired…" He amended.

I noticed the colour of the sky underneath the closed blinds, and drew them up. A clear, pitch-black night with sparkling stars was displayed through the window.

"I didn't realise it was dark already," I muttered. "But the stars are so beautiful…"

"Dad, do you want to rest?"

"No…"

I thought about how disjointed the conversation was – it felt like we were struggling to find something to say. I remembered before, when Kratos and I used to talk about anything and everything, flowing effortlessly from one topic to another.

I decided that I needed to do something to help Kratos – whether it lost me his trust was not important; I just wanted to see him get better.

"Kratos, please, stay really, really calm…" I repeated while summoning a ball of cold fire in my hand.

Upon seeing the flame, Kratos jumped up and backed up against the furthest wall, hissing in pain when his back met with the hard, unyielding surface.

"Lloyd, help me out here, it's cold," I said, referring to the flame.

"Promise?"

"Promise."

Lloyd went over to his father, and tried to coax him forward, but Kratos was extremely adamant that he was not moving.

"Kratos, please, trust me. I would never try to hurt you. I just want you to take a couple of steps closer. Can you do that?"

He swallowed, and after a long hesitation, shuffled closer. I looked into his eyes, noting his fear.

"Trust me. Just a little further…"

Kratos, with slightly less hesitation and uncertainty than last time, stepped forward again. We continued to coax Kratos forward until he stood in front of me, and more importantly, the fireball. I saw the fear was still in his eyes, but he was battling it, not allowing it to cripple him.

"Just touch it…"

His eyes were wide in fear as he looked from my eyes to the ball of fire in my hands.

"Alright, just bring your hand a little closer…"

He did so uncertainly. I brought the cool flames closer very slowly, repeating assurances that I was not going to hurt him. Finally, the fire was so close that flames were tentatively licking his hand.

Although at first he flinched, he did not withdraw – a testament to Kratos' bravery and self-discipline. Then, as he sensed it wasn't hot, he experimentally poked the ball. Finally – with a deep breath – he stuck his hand into the fire.

"As long as I am with you, fire will never hurt you again," I promised.

He looked up, his eyes still held some pain, but only small amounts, and it looked like he could cope.

"Thank you…" He sighed, apparently his wounds still hurt.

"Do you need some burn salve?" I asked.

He nodded.

"I should have some somewhere," I muttered, digging through my bag.

"Nia, why do _you _have burn salve? You can't get burnt," Lloyd inquired.

"I can't get burnt myself, but other people can. It's still in there from the time I used to make mistakes and fight the wrong people – when I realised my mistake, I could at least help the person. Ah, here it is." I pulled out a tub of cream.

"I'll go outside for a while," I quickly said, before going out into the corridor.

For a second, I had the idea to go to the main room, but decided against it. Kratos still needed us. I went to my bedroom – not far – and sat on the edge of the bed, looking out my starry window. In the distance, a soft pinkish glow appeared – the sun was rising.

A bleep from the wall behind me startled me, and made me fall over my bed.

"I'm not _that _much of a klutz," I complained from my place on the floor.

I looked up to find the source of the sound – an intercom device built into the wall. I stumbled to my feet and pressed the 'accept' button to stop the machine making such a noise. Yuan's face appeared on a small screen.

"Nia, everyone's being called to a meeting in the main reception room here," Yuan stated.

"And you want me there. Fine, where is it?"

Yuan gave me a complicated list of directions, but I felt I had a dim idea of where it was. If not, I planned to wander around aimlessly until I found it.

Luckily, it was not as hard as it seemed to find the room, although, I was the last to arrive. We sat in a rough circle – Yuan at a computer desk, then going clockwise, Raine sat next to him, followed by Sheena, Zelos, Colette, Genis, Presea, Regal, Lloyd and Kratos. I took up a space next to Kratos, checking his face to see if he was all right.

"Now, you've been called here-" Yuan started.

"First thing in the morning," Raine growled. I noticed that her hair was slightly messed up – she must have come more or less straight from bed.

"Because as of now, we are unsure of what exactly to do," Yuan finished resolutely as if the interruption hadn't taken place.

"Shouldn't we be stopping Mithos?" Sheena pointed out as if it were obvious.

"We do not have any clue what Mithos' intentions are." Yuan said bluntly.

Lloyd paled. "He wants revenge. He wants to kill everyone who was involved with his death."

The whole group gulped. "Well, Yuan's safe, then…" I muttered.

"Actually, Mithos wants revenge on Yuan for starting the Renegades."

Yuan joined the group in gulping.

"Nia's safe though," Lloyd added.

"Why?"

"To begin with, she's friends with Cruxis, and he doesn't want to cross her. Also, you helped rescue him from here – he feels like he owes you for that – and he remembers that when he possessed you, you didn't hate him and didn't actually want to kill him."

My eyes widened and rather than feel relief, I felt more worry pile onto my emotions.

"What about Kratos…and Yuan? Cruxis still cares about them."

Lloyd shook his head slowly. "No. To Mithos, they're long-term traitors – unforgivable."

"Who's most at risk in the group?" Yuan asked with a calmness that was not to be believed.

Lloyd refused to answer, staring at the floor.

"You are, aren't you? You killed Mithos yourself, you represent the opposite of him, of course he's going to try and kill you first. Before, you were protected, because you were part of him, but now…" I inhaled deeply. "This has thrown us deep-end in the scheiße…"

"The what?"

"Never mind. But…what can we do? I'm going to be useless. I can't do anything – Cruxis is my friend. But…"

"I understand…" Kratos whispered, almost inaudibly.

I gave a weak smile. "Thanks."

"Mithos needs to be stopped, but Cruxis will protect him," Lloyd stated.

Everyone in the circle knew it, but no one wanted to say it. Eventually, the task fell to Raine.

"They both need to be killed, then. There's nothing else for it. It's a matter of survival – us or them."

A tear ran down my cheek and I felt like running out the door, but somehow managed to remain in the room. I knew Cruxis didn't want anyone to die – why else would she have told me to take Lloyd? But she was still our enemy because she insisted on siding with Mithos… I thought back to the last conversation we had – when I'd just regained my memories.

She seemed to be struggling against someone…something… What was going on?

"I think Raine and Genis would be safe," I murmured.

"What? Why?"

"Their blood. Being a half-elf helps. And I think he looked to Genis as a friend, and Raine as a sister."

Lloyd nodded. "Yes, you two are safe."

"Anyone else?" Yuan asked.

"Let's see, Colette and Zelos; definitely not, as they both – in his eyes – failed their duty as Chosens. Then Sheena is in danger because of being able to summon – without her, Mithos couldn't have died that first time. And I'm not really sure about Presea and Regal," Lloyd reasoned.

"Great, so he only wants to kill half the group," Yuan muttered.

"But, he would kill if he was being attacked," Lloyd pointed out.

"So, we need a plan."

"We attack them on their home turf, right?" Zelos said, trying to lift the mood.

"I suppose so," Genis muttered.

I took a deep breath and said, "I'm not coming. I'm sorry, but I can't kill Cruxis. I can barely kill Mithos, but only if it was in self-defence. I would be no use to you." I turned my head to hide a falling tear.

"I think Dad should stay behind too," Lloyd announced.

"What?" Kratos whispered.

"Dad, you can hardly speak – you aren't fit to fight," Lloyd reasoned.

"So everyone apart from those two are coming?" Yuan asked.

Everyone nodded.

"Meeting dismissed, meet outside the base in ten minutes."

I shuffled back through the corridors, head hung. I didn't think it was right to let my friends fight and die – no matter which side they were on.

"Nia," Kratos called weakly.

I turned to see him following.

"What?" I tried to brighten my expression, but still looked as gloomy as ever.

"We fight our enemies and save our friends."

Kratos strode off into his room, leaving me thinking. Was there any way of saving Cruxis?

"Wait, that's it!" I exclaimed, running towards the base's entrance.

As I passed by an open door, a gloved hand shot out and clasped around my wrist. There was a flash of bright white light and then I found myself outside the Tower of Mana. I smiled slightly, remembering the gloved hand clad in lilac.

"Thanks, Kratos."

* * *

Mez: Please review! Every time you review, I get an inspiration burst and start writing! 


	17. Chapter 17

Jana: We don't own Tales of Symphonia and Mez feels overworked!

Mez: Well, I've got too much homework...and I wrote the last 4 chapters practically on my own!

Jana: I'll help out next chapter...

Mez: That's what you said last time...

* * *

Nia's POV – Outside the Tower of Mana

I walked in through the top door, after flying up there. I covered myself with a shield of air – not only would it keep sound inside, but it would keep any attacks outside – not that I hoped to be attacked.

I crept through the shadowy halls, despite my shield of air. Eventually, I made it to the main hall, with the triangular mirrors. Cruxis stood in a corner of the room, taking a few tentative steps forward. I was about to reveal myself when I stopped. Something didn't seem right.

She seemed to be talking – muttering – to herself as she walked. She turned sharply and lashed out at one of the mirrors managing to hit them all.

"I killed a mirror," Cruxis stared wide-eyed at the remains of the mirror.

"Cruxis, you know that is over 35 years of bad luck, right?" I called after a quick count of the mirrors destroyed.

"Nia! Why are you here?" Cruxis asked, startled.

"I need to tell you. Lloyd's group…they're coming. They want to kill Mithos."

"No…I won't let them! Why are you telling me this?"

"If you get in their way they will kill you," I said somberly. "You're a friend. And they don't have anything against you…"

"What do you mean?"

"Please. If you join us…"

"What about Mithos?"

I hung my head.

"I can't. You understand."

"I do. I couldn't really ask you to leave him, it's just…I don't want to see anyone get hurt. Couldn't you talk him round?"

"They _killed him_, Nia. Wouldn't you bear a grudge if someone killed you?"

"I suppose…" I said quietly.

"Nia, we're still friends, aren't we?"

I gave a weak smile. "The weirdest friends anyone will ever find."

"Then, shall we promise…not to hurt each other? No matter what?"

"Yeah, I promise," I replied.

Slowly, I walked away, blending into the shadows. I made my way back outside and was about to fly back to the Renegade base when I caught sight of the group making their way towards the tower. I followed them – I didn't really know why, but I felt like I had to. I kept to the higher gantries and pathways when I could, and when that wasn't possible, I used my bubble of air to prevent myself from being heard as I followed from the shadows behind them.

Eventually, they were in a large hall, with lots of room to fight. And in the center, was Mithos and Cruxis, looking unsurprised at their arrival.

"Brilliant. Since you're all here at the same time, it saves me tracking you all down," Mithos sneered.

Mentally, I wondered what Cruxis saw in him.

"Mithos. This fight is not necessary," Yuan reasoned.

"Oh, really. And I suppose I should forgive you all for killing me and destroying my dream of a better world?" Mithos asked as he launched into an attack.

Cruxis looked regretful and indecisive for a moment, but as soon as Mithos got on the receiving end of an attack, she leapt in, fighting with swift whip strikes.

I watched the fight nervously. For a while, the two sides seemed even, but then Mithos and Cruxis began to gain a slight upper hand. It seemed that Mithos would have easily been defeated long ago without Cruxis, but she added that extra edge to the fight, a combination of whip fighting and magic casting. Just as it seemed the 'good guys' were slowly getting back the advantage, Cruxis quickly summoned two Ktugachlings to help, before plunging back into the fray.

With the added disadvantage and distraction of the small fire creatures, the 'good guys' were quite simply getting killed. I turned away, crying. I couldn't interfere – if I saved them now, Cruxis may die later because of it. But if I let them die…I couldn't let them die.

With a scream of frustration, I stepped out of the shadows and placed everyone within bubbles of air, shielding them from their opponents. Then, I asked Yuan to teleport the 'good' side back to the Renegade base.

When only I was left with Mithos and Cruxis, I let their bubbles of air disappear. Cruxis nodded sympathetically – she'd understood why I'd stepped in.

"You just can't stand to see anyone hurt, let alone let them die in front of you," She summarised.

I nodded.

"Just remember, they were hunting _us_down – not the other way around," Mithos said.

"I know. My life would be so much easier if my friends weren't trying to kill each other…" I muttered, striding out of the tower.

I drew my wings out and hastily flew back to the Renegade base. It didn't take too long, although I used up virtually all my remaining strength. Still about fifteen feet up in the air, I started to plummet, having lost energy in my wings. They trailed limply behind me as I shot down through the air. But I wasn't afraid. Even being certain that I was going to die, I didn't fear death, merely accepting it calmly.

The seconds seemed eternities long, during which, I just felt a calm sense of acceptance of the situation. Further and further down I fell, until…

With a rush of purple, my sharp descent stopped, and a pair of arms wrapped themselves securely around me.

Funnily enough, my thoughts were slightly hazy, but I felt slightly cheated. Had I wanted to die? I turned to my savior tiredly. His brown eyes were focused intently on my face.

"Nia, are you alright?" He asked worriedly.

"I'm fine, Kratos…" I mumbled – my mouth didn't want to work.

He landed, teleporting us inside. He'd managed to get us exactly in my room – how he managed it without getting us stuck halfway through a wall will always amaze me.

"You aren't alright, you need to recharge," He insisted firmly.

My brain thought this over slowly: I needed to get energy, which most people get by eating and drinking. However, to get energy into me, I need fire… Then I realised that being in a room with a slightly pyrophobic man was not the best situation for me.

"Fire…" I muttered.

Kratos gulped, the fear in his eyes apparent still.

"It's fine…go get someone else…"

But that didn't work either – he was afraid to leave me on my own incase I did die. Eventually, he steeled himself to use Eruption on me. I felt the difference instantly – the haze in my mind lifted and my body no longer felt as limp as an overcooked noodle.

"You…have a Cruxis Crystal," Kratos said, gently touching my wings.

I nodded mutely.

"Why didn't you tell anyone?"

"Lloyd knew. And I was going to tell you…soon. It's just everything's happening so fast."

Kratos nodded, looking at my wings regretfully.

"What's wrong?"

He pulled out his own wings, which were broken in several places. All the turquoise feathers were askew and blood had dried, sticking the feathers together.

"Can I help, is there anything I can do?" I asked nervous. My hands hovered over his wings, not quite daring to touch them incase it hurt him. "Should I get someone?"

"No," He grunted painfully.

"Should I clean them up a bit?"

He nodded slowly.

I carefully straightened the feathers, wishing that it wouldn't cause him any pain. I didn't notice that he visibly relaxed once I'd taken control. After I had done all I could, the wings were still broken, although the dried blood was now gone. I wished that they could be mended somehow…

I admonished myself at that thought – nothing was going to get done simply by wishing it, and I should know it. However, even as I thought that, the turquoise limbs healed themselves, straightening out the breaks themselves, until they looked as good as new.

"What just happened?"

"Wings are very responsive to people's thoughts and feelings. Mithos wished to do harm to them, so they became hurt. While you wanted them to get better, I assume?"

I nodded.

"Thank you."

"It was nothing, really."

"But you helped me, through everything that's happened. I'll never think it was nothing, ever."

I smiled, before suddenly realizing, "I have to talk to everyone else. They arrived back, right?"

"Yes, but what's so urgent?"

"I stopped the fight. They were about to die, and I saved them, but I don't know whether they'll see it that way…"

"I'll come with you and help in whatever way I can."

"Thanks," I said appreciatively.

We went to the main room – where I guessed the group was – to find Raine healing wounds. As soon as I entered, though, she rounded on me.

"I knew we shouldn't have trusted you!" She shouted vehemently. "You're on _their_ side, aren't you?"

I took a deep breath in an attempt to calm down, and failed, losing my temper. "If I _was _on their side, then pray tell me: _why, _exactly, are you all here in one piece? Why, did I end the fight only when you were losing? Why did I risk my life expending energy to _protect_ all of you if I am on _their _side?"

Raine – for a second – looked sheepish, before retaliating, "Why were you there in the first place?"

"I was seeing if I could talk Cruxis around. She's my _friend_, but perhaps _you_ don't understand what that means," I added icily.

"Well, it seems she doesn't offer you that same friendship," She shot back. "After all, what friend would refuse to be on your side?"

"A friend in love. And I would be selfish to demand that she leave him to die."

"So you'd rather sacrifice our lives instead?"

"Ijust saved you back there! Some thanks I'm getting! Incase you hadn't noticed: you were _losing_. You would have _died _had I not saved you. What about that is so difficult to understand?"

Colette awkwardly stepped forward. "Nia, Professor. Please, stop shouting. I know this is hard on you, but we can't be fighting each other at a time like this."

"You're right, Colette," I admitted. "I'm sorry for causing a disturbance."

Raine merely stormed off, still angry and in a mood.

"Leave her," Kratos advised. "She's probably sore because you won the argument and you're younger than her. I'll see if she's calmed down later."

I felt a slight pang of jealousy at Kratos' words, but said nothing

"Well," Lloyd said awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. "That was…unexpected."

I blushed – I hadn't meant to cause a scene.

"I haven't seen anyone talk to the Professor like that," he added.

"It had to happen some day," I pointed out, trying to play it down.

"And Genis and me used to wonder what would happen to the unlucky person who did…"

Genis added, "You proved us wrong – not a scratch on you."

I hid my face with one hand. "Please, don't make a big thing of it. I just lost my temper – I shouldn't have done that."

"She was being unreasonable," Yuan contributed.

Sheena interrupted with, "This is a bit off topic, but when you said you risked your life..?"

"I used up too much energy making the air bubbles and almost didn't make it back here. If I wasn't found, I'd probably be dead."

"But you managed to hold us all back before with no problems – remember, against that Dragon in Derris-Kharlan?"

"It was slightly different. To begin with, there's an extra person. But before, I just held you back with a normal gust of wind – pretty much simple. This time, however, I created a sphere of air that expands from one central point, so that even if magic were cast, you still wouldn't be harmed. Obviously, this is a lot harder – the most I'd ever done at one time used to be five. I beat that record by six this time."

There were a couple of soft whistles in appreciation.

"By the way, thanks, Nia," Lloyd thanked.

"I couldn't let anyone get hurt…but what's going to happen now?" I asked.

"It's been made apparent that we aren't a match for both Mithos and Cruxis fighting together," Yuan started. "So, we shall have to attack while they are separated. I have Renegades positioned all over the world for this purpose."

"It won't work," I muttered.

"Why not?"

"First of all, we'll be waiting long enough for them to leave each other's sight. Then, in the event that they do create that situation, Cruxis will be near impossible to kill – I know I'm not the only one who remembers Unholy Judgment. And we haven't even begun to see any of her Agorned magic…trust me, you don't want to. Magic that's strong enough to separate two souls and give them a living body each is certainly strong enough to kill you in ways you can hardly imagine. It can mess around with your mind... When I went to Agorned, I saw people who could turn things – people – inside out with their magic, just for fun. People who could take things apart with their mind, atom by atom, and think nothing of it."

There was a group gasp at my words.

"Then, we'll target Mithos," Yuan said nonchalantly.

Yuan's coolness unnerved me – and I had a sneaking suspicion he thought I was being an alarmist.

'_Fine_,' I thought to myself. '_Let him think what he wants. He'll see soon enough if he continues to follow this path._'

"For now, I suggest that everyone get a chance to rest – if anything happens, there's an intercom in every room."

Slowly, everyone dispersed from the main room. Kratos turned to me, saying, "I'd better go and check up on Raine."

I struggled to not let anything show on my face as I answered, "Alright."

I could hardly stop myself from sneaking after him, though. To my surprise, Lloyd and Genis followed too.

When Kratos entered Raine's room, we all asked each other, "What are _you_ doing here?"

Lloyd answered first. "He's my Dad – I'm allowed to spy on him."

"Well, I need to know if Raine's going to be like this for a week or not so I know to avoid her," Genis muttered.

I struggled to come up with an answer. "Well…well, I'm just nosy, okay?"

Genis gave me a skeptical look. "And this isn't jealousy?"

I felt my cheeks burn. "No, of course not!"

Lloyd seemed oblivious to the whole conversation. "Why would she be jealous?"

"Ah, just drop it, Lloyd," I mumbled awkwardly.

"You know, she is interested in him," Genis said quietly, referring to his sister. "She tries to hide it, but she can't. She became all miserable when Derris-Kharlan left – and very prone to mood swings," Genis shuddered. "Her mood going, of course, from depressed to angry and back again."

"Wait, the Professor? And Dad?" Lloyd said disbelievingly. "Eww…"

"You don't think he would?" I asked, daring to hope.

"I don't know. But I don't want the Professor as a step-mom!" He exclaimed desperately.

I nodded sympathetically – I knew all too well what it was like to have unwanted stepfamily. On the whole, mine weren't too bad, but on some days, there were a few that I wouldn't mind getting rid of.

Suddenly, Raine's door opened, and said scary Professor came rushing out, crying.

"I guess Kratos told her no," Genis whispered.

"Yes!" Lloyd and I said at the same time, exchanging a high-five.

Kratos stepped out the room, and hearing the clap of the high-five, looked at us.

"Uh-oh, busted!" Lloyd muttered worriedly.

Kratos gave a small smile – almost minuscule. "You don't have to look _quite _so happy."

"You can't blame him – he's escaped having Raine as a step-mother," I reasoned.

"Who said I was talking about Lloyd?"

I blushed slightly under his inquiring look.

"Nia, I think we'll have to talk sometime, too."

I nodded, a small dread starting to creep in. What if he thought I was just being silly? What if he thought it was just a teenage crush? What if he just laughed at my fragile hope? What if…

* * *

Poor Nia (hugs)

Review, please!


	18. Chapter 18

Mez: Warning! Lime (implied scenes of a graphical nature that may not be suitable for young children…or just children in general), death and destruction in **this **chapter! (talk about having everything!) It's not _too_ bad…but this fic has been rated 'T' for a reason! (which might be bumped up to 'M' just to feel safe…) 

Mez (again): Also, neither Jana nor I own Tales of Symphonia. Jana tends to own death and destruction like a pet dog…although I usually end up feeding it.

* * *

Nia's POV

Kratos had led me into his room for the talk he'd mentioned earlier.

"So, is their anything _you _want to talk about?" Kratos asked, watching me carefully.

I cast around, panicked, for a subject that _didn't_ link to my affections for Kratos. Suddenly, I found something.

"I don't really know what I'll do…" After a questioning and surprised look from Kratos, I clarified, "when I go back home, I mean."

He quickly composed himself. "True. With Stephen dead…"

"Yes, but there are other things besides. I mean: I won't age normally anymore."

"You can age using the Cruxis Crystal."

"You mean similar to what Mithos did?"

"In theory, yes. But you could merely age a couple of months at a time."

Another sudden thought struck me at this point – and I was still trying to divert Kratos' attention – so I eagerly said, "I wonder what I'd look like at eighteen…Wait, why don't I find out?"

Kratos hid a slight smile behind a gloved hand, and I got the feeling he knew something I didn't. Still, I was fairly confident that I knew how to age. I focused on the place inside me – the moonlit, wooded clearing – and made the trees grow. The grass became tall and uncontrollable. The stream flowed faster. And when I stopped focusing on my inner place, I was amazed with the changes.

The first thing I noticed was that I was taller, obviously. But my figure was far curvier. I wanted to find a mirror, to see how I looked, but then I noticed Kratos…

"Kratos, are you okay?" I asked – he seemed to be staring into space.

"Yes, I'm fine," He said earnestly. "It's just…you look…beautiful."

'_Is he…hitting on me?' _I thought and a small blossom of hope dared to appear.

I realised that I was completely alone with Kratos in this room.

This thought stunned me into an awkward silence – until I had a similar thought going through my head that kept repeating itself, and wouldn't allow itself to be dismissed.

Kratos gave that same slight smile as earlier and asked, "What is it?"

"Right now, there's only one thing that I…that this body…wants to do." I muttered, not realizing how close I was getting to the subject I was trying to avoid.

"And what's that?" Kratos asked, his smile betraying that he knew full well what I meant.

_Then_, I realised what I'd said, and a deep blush formed on my cheeks.

"That is…I…" I said, stumbling through my words.

"Don't be nervous. If it is what I think it is, I feel the same way too."

My eyes widened. Surely, he couldn't mean… "I…I…"

"I love you."

My heart sped, pounding in my ears. I'd known of my own feelings for Kratos, but had never expected them to be returned. For one, ludicrous, moment I thought I was dreaming.

"You do? I never thought…" I stopped myself from complicating things, instead adding, "I think I love you too."

"Think?"

"I've never been in love before." A slight blush crept once again across my cheeks.

I noticed that Kratos was shaking slightly, almost undetectable.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing's _wrong_," he insisted.

"Then…why are you shaking?" I rephrased.

There was a definite tremor that spread across Kratos' body.

"I…want to do something really badly."

My imagination filled in the 'something'.

"So do I," I murmured in a quiet whisper, that Kratos of course heard, with angelic hearing. "I couldn't…I'm only fourteen really, despite what I look like…"

But I harshly reminded myself that in reality, girls as young as thirteen got themselves pregnant…

"I don't want to pressure you into anything. What you choose to do is up to you," Kratos assured.

"I want to, I'm sure. I'm just really nervous."

"It's normal to be nervous. I'd worry if you weren't…even I'm nervous." While he was speaking, Kratos enveloped me in a hug – not ideally what he wanted to do, but restrained himself from doing anything drastic…barely.

From here, I could feel his trembling increase, and I, too, started trembling, through a mix of nerves and barely contained desire.

"Nia, once anything starts happening, I don't think I'll be able to stop. This is your last chance to change your mind," Kratos said with a strained voice.

"I'm sure."

Meanwhile…

Cruxis stared intently at the blank wall in front of her. She could feel control of herself slipping away from her. She was losing control to this…this demon, she knew. Ever since arriving in reality, a voice had talked to her, argued to her and took control of her when she felt emotionally weakest.

No one around her was safe. Finally, she decided she'd have to leave, for Mithos' safety.

She left like a shadow – silently and unnoticed. She flew over the continent in a daze, before feeling the demon attempt to control her again. Cruxis fought, but her heart wasn't in it and soon the demon overwhelmed her.

"Now, now, now…" it muttered, through her mouth. "Where to obliterate first, I wonder?"

And the demon in an angel's body spotted a small fishing village with a smirk…

Nia's POV 

I was relaxed and at peace – feeling protected. A pair of strong, well-toned arms were wrapped around me, and I'd rested my head on the shoulder of their owner. He felt comfortingly warm beneath my skin. I knew that nothing could disturb us – nothing could harm us.

We were both awake, but neither of us spoke, savoring and relaxing in this beautiful silence. Kratos slowly ran a hand over my exposed skin, making me shiver in delight, and burrow my head into his shoulder.

I was _his_, and I wouldn't want it any other way.

And in a part of the Renegade base that is blissfully unaware of what's just happened…

A Renegade sighed at his computer console. He was supposed to be watching the screen in case anyone suspicious appeared, and keeping in contact with the disguised Renegades posted around the world. At first it'd seemed like a good job, but now, the minutes were dragging until someone came to relieve his shift.

Suddenly, his communicator rang, and he fumbled for it, finally pressing the accept button.

The voice on the other end was extremely panicked and was shouting into the receiver. "The subject is in Izoold! I repeat: she is in Izoold!"

"Roger, I'll tell Lord Yuan straight away."

The nameless Renegade ran straight to the main room with his message.

Meanwhile, in Izoold 

Chaos lived everywhere in the previously sleepy town. Wood smoke mingled with scorched hair and flesh as people were trapped in rapidly burning houses. Those who weren't caught in the houses ran for their lives – which proved to be futile.

The demon had enclosed the town in a 'protective' barrier, which prevented the inhabitants from escaping the town, as well as preventing anyone from attempting a rescue.

Anyone in the town was guaranteed a death – however, the demon wasn't completely cruel. The inhabitants could choose to die in the fires – being suffocated by smoke or burnt alive was preferable to anything the demon could think up. But, the villagers clinged to the tiny, pathetic hope that they would live, despite their surroundings.

A tall, dark-haired, pale skinned woman ran for her life, tripping over her own shoes and sprawling ungracefully over the ground where she landed. The demon summoned millions of needles above the fallen woman that hovered uncertainly for a moment. Then, with one sweeping gesture, the needles skewered the woman with a bloodcurdling scream of pain, leaving her bloody and unrecognizable. However, she wasn't dead – the needles hadn't punctured anything vital – so she lay there, painfully trying to move, with the movements getting weaker with every passing second. Finally, she died from blood loss, many excruciating minutes later.

It wasn't long before more victims of the demon's brutality lay dead on the blood-soaked earth; another woman with shorter dark hair and lightly tanned skin had one long, deep incision across her neck and a stab in her lower abdomen; an adolescent boy had been mutilated, with his limbs clumsily hacked off and his skin dissolved in an acidic substance; and a teenage girl lay, with her intestine, heart, lungs and liver scattered over the ground around her.

But the slaughter didn't stop there. Another teenage girl had a hole through her face, where a rat had been forced to slowly gnaw through it while the girl screamed in pain. Another woman had been stabbed in the stomach, and her stomach acid had slowly disintegrated her internal organs, making her die slowly and painfully.

After a short quarter of an hour, the demon was satisfied there were no survivors, and left the village, smirking savagely.

Back in the Renegade Base, Nia's POV

Eventually, Kratos and I got dressed again – although, who knew that only two sets of clothes could get spread so far? I uncertainly stepped out of the room, wondering what everyone's reaction would be if they found out. Would they think I was a slut? Hell, did _I _think I was a slut?

Suddenly, Genis walked down the corridor, and I – instantly fearing the worst – blushed, looking down at the floor.

"What..?" he wondered.

Then, he realised how close I was to the door, and why I was acting that way.

"You're about as obvious as a sore thumb," Genis stated, shaking his head. "You'd better hope Raine doesn't find out…"

"Find out what?" came a demanding, harsh voice from down the corridor.

"You're on your own," Genis muttered, before wisely escaping.

I, however, stood frozen, much like a rabbit in a pair of headlights. Raine thundered up the corridor, shouting at the top of her voice. I didn't catch the exact words, but I knew it was some sort of insult and I also knew she'd worked it out. Her shouting voice echoed across the corridor, obscuring the words – probably a good thing.

Eventually, her rant came to an end, with a sharp, smarting slap to my cheek. I scrabbled to retaliate and was held back by Kratos, who had just come out in time to see the slap.

"Nia, no. She isn't worth it," he hissed.

"You're a slut who tricked Kratos into loving you!" she shouted desperately.

"Raine, face the truth," Kratos said defensively. "Even if I'd never met Nia, I wouldn't look at you as anything more than an acquaintance."

Raine ran off, crying angrily. "You'll rue the day you stole him, wench!"

I turned to Kratos. "What's her problem? Anyone else would have learnt, but why does she still try, even after you've bluntly rejected her?"

That evening, in a wood near Luin

Six, shadowy human figures sat around a crackling fire. Occasionally, animals would join them – sometimes a dog, or a bat, or occasionally a snake, but they were sleepy, and naturally wary of the fire.

"I think…" one of the girls said quietly. "I think we shouldn't have cast that curse…"

"Shut up, Hazel. It was your idea to begin with," another girl accused.

Hazel fell silent – not really insulted, but back into thinking and being in a world of her own.

"So, the curse. How long now?" yet another girl asked, looking up from a thick, worn book.

One of the boys in the group looked up from tending the fire. The flickering light made his eyes look hollow and dull for a second, before he looked normal again. "She's slowly losing the fight. It's hard to say, but the curse should fully take hold soon. I just wonder…what if Hazel's right? The curse was _meant _to kill _her_ not the people who happen to get in her way."

"Linori, you wimp," A slightly older boy said giving him a light-hearted punch. "It's so hard to believe you're my brother. You know what this person's done – she had to know we'd get revenge sooner or later. Besides, even if we wanted to remove the curse, we can't now. We made it _irreversible_."

"There has to be some loop-hole," Linori argued. "That's the first thing they teach us – a spell without loopholes or faults is practically impossible, especially for a big working like this. You should know that, Tyrio."

"We checked," one of the girls said. "We spent days just examining it for faults. If there was even one small thing, we know she'd use that weakness."

"To be honest, I was thinking the opposite of Hazel," the sixth – and previously silent – person said. "Rather than calling it off, why not extend the curse? Make it have side effects that work on those who sympathise with her, even when finding out all she's done."

"I like the idea of that," Tyrio muttered. "But instead of adding it to the curse we already have, make it new and separate."

"Yeah, that way, if there's a weakness in one, and it falls apart, the other one will still be safe," one of the unnamed girls reasoned.

"I'm in," the other said.

"Anyone opposed?" the sixth member asked warily, glancing towards Hazel, then to Linori.

"It doesn't feel right…" Hazel muttered.

"I don't like it either, but I'm not going to stop you," Linori sighed.

There was a flurry of activity as animals were retrieved – and in most cases, woken up – and objects were drawn out of their bags.

"It looks like a good time for Magic…"

"Hey, don't forget me!" one of the girls protested.

"And Mystik, too…"

That night, Renegade Base, Nia's POV

Kratos and I had spent the night talking (yes, _just _talking – nothing else) and stargazing out the window.

"We should tell Lloyd at some point," Kratos pointed out.

"Yeah, we can't leave the poor kid in the dark," I agreed.

"Kid? You're younger than he is."

"True…not that you mind, though."

Kratos gave me a quick kiss. "Of course not."

"How about we tell him after this is all over? Although, how this'll end, I have no idea…"

"It'll be alright," he assured, cradling me in a loose hug.

"I hope…" my sentence was cut off with a gasp of pain.

"Nia? What's wrong?"

"I don't…know…" I gasped, collapsing to my knees.

My wings burst from my back in a flurry of feathers, but I hardly noticed – the pain I felt blinded me to everything. I felt an intense, stabbing pain throughout my body, my ears felt like I should tear them out to stop the pain and my eyes felt as though they were being pried out with a blunt spoon.

I must have been screaming in agony, but even that I didn't register. It could have been seconds, hours or days that I was in this pain – there was no way I could tell. Occasionally, a hand gently touched me, and I took a shred of comfort that Kratos had stayed by me throughout this.

My mind slowly struggled to find a way to end the pain. The first thing that sprang to mind was – inevitably – suicide. Anything was better than this pain…

'No!' A part of my mind argued. 'If you go, what else is there for Kratos?'

Full of pain though I was, the thought struck a ringing chord with me.

"I…will…fight this!" I shouted – more than likely shocking Kratos.

My eyes snapped open and I fought against the pain. Kratos held me close.

"I'm here. I'll always be here."

I forcefully nodded my thanks before grunting in pain.

"Pain, I don't know where you came from, but I refuse to let you win," I muttered steadily. "As long as I can still think, and breathe, and love, you'll never win."

Spots danced in front of my eyes. Out of the haze, a small, snarling creature appeared and somehow, I knew Kratos couldn't see it. It pointed at me with a withered talon.

"What the hell do you mean?" I growled quietly.

'_I live for your soul…'_ it hissed menacingly.

"You shouldn't live in the first place – you're a monstrosity."

It was true, brown-red blood had dried all over the creature; it's features were shrunken and gaunt. It's small, crimson eyes sneered at me.

'_You will get tired of this charade called life. Then, you'll beg me for an escape.'_

"Never. I shall never grovel to you. I'd rather live an eternity."

'You say that now, young child. But once you live a millennium or so, who knows…' 

The creature disappeared in a wisp of black smoke, taking the pain away with it.

I lifted myself carefully – no trace of the pain remained, and I could have believed that I'd imagined it.

"Did I win?" I wondered quietly. "What happened in the first place?"

* * *

Jana: Review please!


	19. Chapter 19

Mez: For the first time in ages, I was not on my own writing this! While I wrote about half of it from scratch, the other half I merely had to type up (or in one part, decode, and then type up – that's how bad the handwriting was!) 

To Magicswnymor: thank you for writing the scene in the middle for us, unfortunately, due to a joint decision, it had to be…trimmed slightly. And I extended it a bit to put in the sixth person, but it's mostly unchanged (what's left of it, anyway)

We don't own Tales of Symphonia. I (Mez) own Nia, I owned Stephen, I own the homeland of the people who are trying to kill Cruxis and I own three of them, too. The other three are based on real people. Jana-whatever-her-name-is-this-month owns most everything about Cruxis except the name. (That has to be the longest disclaimer I've ever written!)

* * *

Normal POV

It had been a few days since the destruction of Izoold, and tempers in the Renegade base were wearing thin. Cruxis had not been spotted since the event a few days ago, and it had hammered home the importance of finding…of killing…Cruxis.

The main room was silent except for the gentle hum of the computer, until Yuan sighed heavily. He half contemplated finding an underling to shout at, but he knew it wouldn't make anything happen, so he resisted…barely.

Nia's POV

Kratos and I decided to tell Lloyd about our relationship, rather than him finding out from another, biased source. Not naming any names, of course…

Getting Lloyd on his own was easy enough – he was all too glad to have a chat with his Dad, even if he didn't know what the chat was about. Actually getting the words out was much harder…

I tried first. "Lloyd, your father and I…"

I felt my cheeks grow hot, and I wondered how exactly to say that I'd been sleeping with his father… How did people manage this back in Reality? I shot Kratos a pleading look, and luckily, he came to the rescue.

"Nia and I…we are together. As in a couple…"

An awkward silence bubbled up as Lloyd was uncertain whether to trust his ears.

He struggled with his next sentence. "Wait…Nia would be…my step-mom, then, right?"

"No one's trying to replace Anna," Kratos said quickly.

"I know. It's just…it's weird having a step-mom whose younger than me…"

I waited with baited breath – so far, Lloyd had been far more accepting than other teenagers would be, but it was impossible to tell whether he'd get better or worse from here on. I also knew that the surface reaction might not be what he really feels – I remember that I'd acted quite calmly about getting a step-dad and brother, but really, I was quite panicked.

"But…" Lloyd started slowly. "I guess it's about time Dad stopped mopping around and got on with his life," he said, flashing an apologetic smile at his father. "And at least I know Nia…"

Lloyd was about to say something else – presumably, how weird it was, but Genis entering the room cut him off. Genis was red-faced and breathing shallowly, as if he'd just ran around the Renegade base twice.

"Have you seen Raine? Any of you?" he asked breathlessly.

"I've made a point of avoiding her lately," I pointed out.

Lloyd shook his head. "I haven't seen her either – why are you asking?"

"She's disappeared – no one's seen her for two days!" he said urgently.

"If I said I was disappointed, that'd be a lie," I muttered, recalling the sharp sting of the slap she'd given me.

"Please; she could be dead by now!" Genis shouted desperately, trying to hide the moisture in his eyes.

I sighed; I certainly didn't like her, but I wouldn't want her dead, either. And Genis was an all right person – I didn't want him to worry.

"I'm going to regret this, but I'll help you search for her, if you want…"

Nighttime, in a certain forest near Luin

Two girls sat silently around a crackling fire with the flames illuminating their faces. They were both taller than average, but that's where the similarities stopped. One was engrossed in a thick doorstop of a book – her name was Mystik.

Mystik had long, straight, black hair with the ends an electric blue. She had dark purple eyes and wore a long, v-necked black dress with purple trim. While she was almost always quiet, when she did speak, it was usually important. She gave off this air of formidability – no one would think of trying to manipulate her or bully her into doing something.

The other was called Magic. She had shoulder-length black hair with violet tips, and eyes that matched that exact shade of violet. She liked to wear a dark, hooded cloak, which normally swept the ground behind her. Unlike Mystik, Magic tended to speak her mind all the time. She also had a fiery temper – something that those she was traveling with knew all too well…

Magic eventually stood up, and walked into her black canvas tent, the material of which fluttered in the light breeze. Magic whistled softly, a peaceful, lilting tune, and out of the woods padded a large wolf that joined Magic calmly by her side. She walked into the tent and sank onto some cushions that took up most of the space in the tent. The wolf flopped down next to her and rested her great, heavy head in Magic's lap.

Back at the fireside, three others had joined Mystik. A fairly tall, female figure read over Mystik's shoulder. She had long, blonde hair and icy blue eyes. Her frame was willowy and dainty, but anyone could tell that she was just as set in her opinions as anyone else by the fireside.

Two teenage boys had also sat around the fire. They looked fairly similar, but one was around two years older and had stronger, more handsome features. They both had slightly tanned skin, and brown hair. However, while the elder of the two had brown eyes, the younger had mossy green eyes.

"Mystik, where's Magic?" the elder of the two asked.

Mystik looked up briefly from her book. "She wandered off a little while before you guys came back, Tyrio."

"I'm going to go and find her; maybe ask about…well, I'm going to and find her," Tyrio muttered, walking towards the tent.

Inside the tent, Magic sighed wearily as she absentmindedly stroked the wolf's head.

"Magic," called a strong male voice through the tent opening.

The wolf stood up, growling, with her hackles raised.

"Layla, down," Magic commanded quietly.

The wolf lay down, her normally calm and friendly nature restored. Tyrio entered the tent, paying no mind to the Layla.

"Are you okay, Magic?" Tyrio asked, concern written on his face.

"I suppose," she muttered in reply.

Tyrio peered into Magic's face, as if searching for something.

"What's wrong?"

Magic looked up with shiny, mournful violet eyes. "It's nothing."

"Come on, Magic, tell me," he said, kneeling down besides her. "Whatever it is, it can't be that bad."

"It's about the curse," Magic whispered gravely. "As Hazel said, there might be a loophole…which means that someone might be able to reverse it to its…its casters. Us."

"For heaven's sake, Magic," Tyrio said gently. "There _aren't_ any loopholes in that curse. We made sure of it."

Tyrio sat down beside Magic, tentatively placing a comforting arm around her slim, petite shoulders.

Meanwhile, Linori had sat down by the fireside and has begun to talk to Hazel.

"Linori," Hazel said quietly. "Did you see what she did to that village? I went to see it – there isn't a building left standing, or a single soul left alive. We have to stop her."

There was a rarely heard strain of determination in Hazel's voice.

Reluctantly, Linori tried to argue, but only half-heartedly. "We did what we did for a reason; we should let the curse finish her off…" He gave up, knowing he didn't sound convincing. "Magic, Tyrio and Arcana would kill us – remember when we suggested it last time?"

Hazel made a noise as if deep in thought. "We could just…not tell them…"

Before Linori could approve or disapprove of this plan, however, a girl bounced up towards them. "What are you kids doing?" she asked cheerfully.

She rested a hand on each of their shoulders, and even as she spoke, the hands changed to thick, scaly claws and back again.

"Arcana! Can you not do that?" Linori shouted, pushing the hand off his shoulder.

"She only does it to get on your nerves," Hazel pointed out in her quiet way.

"So? What _are _you doing?" Arcana asked.

"Does it matter?" Linori asked angrily, still getting over the shock of the claw on his shoulder.

"Well, aren't you Mister Grumpy this evening?" she asked, hands on hips.

Arcana's physical appearance didn't matter much – she could change it at will. However, when she was human, she tended to be about average height and solidly built. She liked having dark crimson eyes and ebony hair, although occasionally, she changed to have lighter brown hair and leafy green eyes. Currently, she was wearing a black top with long, billowy sleeves and white embroidery round the neck, and a flowing black skirt that obscured her feet from view.

"Arcana," Hazel said softly. "Could you go away for a while?"

"But everyone's boring! Magic and Tyrio are gone somewhere, Mystik's so deep into her book that she doesn't even realise that there's a world outside those pages, and you're the only people not really doing anything!"

Linori made a small noise of annoyance before saying in a strained voice, "Can't you look after Dashita or something?"

Dashita was Arcana's companion – an eagle; just as the wolf accompanying Magic was her companion.

"He's out hunting," Arcana said, shrugging.

To Linori's annoyance, Arcana sat down next to them. Arcana's eyes seemed to change colour every second – Linori wasn't sure whether Arcana was changing her eye colour or whether the flickering fire was just creating that illusion.

As he sighed in annoyance he realised he couldn't get rid of Arcana anytime soon.

And despite all this, Mystik didn't even glance up from her book.

Tower of Mana, normal POV

Mithos stared disbelievingly at the crumpled and tearstained piece of parchment in his hand. He could tell it was Cruxis' writing – how could he be expected not to recognise the neat yet artistically flowing handwriting of his love?

He read it again, hand slightly trembling.

_Dear Mithos,_

_I'm so sorry, but I must leave. It's…too dangerous, I can't stay. I don't know whether I'll live through this, but I don't want to leave this world with things unsaid. So, I have to say it now._

_I don't love you anymore. You changed over the years – you aren't who you used to be. And at first, I thought I could change that. I thought I could remind you who you were. I was wrong. And maybe over the years…I changed too._

_Whether I survive or not…you shall never see me again. I'm so sorry._

_Farewell._

Mithos didn't want to believe his eyes. With a crushing blow of realization, he crumpled to his knees, letter still in hand. Everyone he'd known, everyone he'd trusted, anyone he'd ever loved…all had left him. He allowed tears to fall from his eyes, staining the parchment and making the ink run.

He stayed there for hours, simply letting the sorrow and sadness leak out of him. Every time he thought he'd stop crying, an old, suppressed memory would make the tears start again, until – finally – his tears ran dry.

He was gripped with a numb calmness, a rational serenity…and had something he hadn't had for a long time – the ability to think straight. Somehow, he realised all the pain and suffering he'd caused so many people over all the years. The humans in the Desian ranches had been uncountable over the years. Even the Desians themselves hadn't had such a good life, now that he thought back on it.

Where was this world that he and Martel had set out to achieve so many long years ago?

"I can never be forgiven for…everything…anything. And…I don't want to seek forgiveness," Mithos muttered to himself. "I'm so lonely…I've always been lonely…I don't even want to be with myself anymore…"

Mithos got off his knees shakily, drawing out his wings.

"I shall go and see my old friends one final time…"

Torrent forest, normal POV

Cruxis wandered further into the leafy forest. She'd past by Origin's seal already and was headed to a parting in the dense trees which no one had set foot in living memory. She wasn't aware of where she was going; conscious decision had ceased long ago. She hadn't realised that at the edge of the woods, she had dropped a carved stone dragon, which seemed to be jealously guarding a gleaming scarlet sphere.

At first, the figure seemed to be little more than an ornament, yet, no creature in the woods would touch it. They all felt this strong power emanating from deep within it. So it stayed, untouched, at the edge of the woods, waiting. Little did anyone know, that this statue could save a life…

* * *

That last sentence needed to be rewritten so many times and I'm _still_ not happy with it! Anyway, reviews are greatly appreciated and the next chapter shouldn't be too long as it's already three quarters written! Also, next chapter is going to be long (already 9 pages and getting longer!) 


	20. Chapter 20

OMG! It's finally done! I know some people will look at this in disbelief, wondering why the hell it's taken so long (sorry and gomen, readers!) 

Basically, this chapter was finished a week after the last one (stop looking in disbelief – I haven't finished, yet!) but, my old laptop died (with the chapter on it, dammit!) so I've had to completely rewrite it! Which took ten times longer than writing it normally…for some odd reason…

I don't own Tales of Symphonia!

* * *

Nia's POV

As much as I hated to admit it, after three hours of searching, it seemed Raine was nowhere to be found and I was worried. I vaguely wondered if she'd be worried if it had been _me_ that had gone missing, or would she had been too busy performing cartwheels? I was searching from the sky, flying on a Rheaird. I'd had to swallow my apprehension of the machine for the time being, although I was ready to abandon the machine at a moment's notice.

I remembered all too clearly my first time flying one of these – it crashed within the first ten minutes. Admittedly, it was because of the drop in mana levels, but an experience like that can sour you for the rest of your life.

The controls were simple, but to me, it just wasn't _natural _to be flying on a heavy piece of metal. Soaring the skies as an angel was far better. For a second, I even preferred being a duck!

The thought brought back memories…the first time I'd come to Symphonia, I'd compared travelling on foot to being like a duck, but realised too late that I'd eaten duck at some point in my life, so had thrown up, disgusted. That had been back when Stephen was alive…

I sighed, watching the air condense into white clouds and swirl around in mild interest. Was my life always going to be so problematic? I had to admit, thinking back to my memories with Kratos, my life hadn't all been bad. But almost everything happy in my life had come at a price….

Suddenly, a voice shouted out from the control panel in front of me. "Nia, can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear," I replied with a smile – I had recognised Kratos' voice at once.

"Have you seen her yet?"

"Nope. Although, I have noticed a couple of ominous clouds…does that count as 'Raine'?"

"I wouldn't tell that to Genis – he's sick with worry, although he tries not to show it."

"I know, I am trying – but she's nowhere to be found. It's like she vanished into thin air…which could be a possibility, knowing Cruxis," I sighed.

"Are you going to continue looking, then?" he asked.

What a question. If I said no, everyone would think, if not say that I'd given up too easily, but if I said yes, I could be stuck up here for a _very_ long time…

"I suppose so," I reluctantly agreed.

"I'll get someone else to take over soon," he promised.

"Okay," I murmured gratefully.

How did he always know exactly what I was thinking?

I scanned the ground below me with a renewed sense of purpose, but everything was green. Green fields, green hedges, green forests…

"Wait, how am I supposed to find her if she's in a forest?" I shouted over a particularly fierce wind.

Kratos made a small noise on the other end of the microphone as he contemplated this.

"We'll send a search party in," he eventually sighed.

"I think I'll come, too. No one will spot her from the air anyway – I've looked everywhere within a radius of ten miles; she can't have gone any further than that," I reasoned, choosing not to add the thought, 'I hope' at the end.

It took a further hour to organize this search party to find Raine, mainly because everyone was debating who should come. Obviously, Genis wanted to come, but everyone was worried for his safety. They tried to discourage me from coming, but as I reasoned, I had already spent this long searching and freezing myself in the damp, icy air, and I wanted to see some form of gratitude…

Eventually we delved into the cool, leafy forest, a relatively small party of myself, Lloyd, Kratos and Yuan. It was actually quite a nice place – I would have enjoyed myself if it weren't for the search for Raine. The ground was pleasantly springy beneath our feet, and with my newly enhanced senses, I could smell the woody aroma of bark, leaves and a hint of pollen from the wildflowers. The sun shone down in dappled rays of warm, golden light.

I toyed with the idea of asking the birds if they had seen her, but all we came across were sparrow-like creatures, and as they had a very limited territory, it didn't seem worth the hassle. In the end, though, we weren't the first ones to find Raine.

A teenage girl with completely straight white-blond hair and icy blue eyes appeared with the half-elven woman in tow. The stranger gave off a mystical air of someone whom is not wholly aware of the world, yet knows something profound that you could not even begin to guess at. To be honest, she gave me the creeps.

"They'd understand if you told them," the girl said quietly to Raine.

"They don't need to know," she growled under her breath.

I shrugged – I didn't care about whatever secrets Raine may have; I only cared that she was alive for her brother's sake.

The girl looked at me, seeming to recognise me, although I'd never seen her before – I was quite sure of that.

"Nia Owen Jones," she said.

"How…do you know my name?" I asked, unnerved.

"It's not important right now, but it is important that I get to speak to you. Your friend…Cruxis…she isn't herself right now. She's gone to the forest beyond the village of the elves."

How on earth could she have known this? When, with all the Renegade's manpower and technology, we hadn't been able to track her…she was only one person, after all. And we'd never even seen her before…

She locked eyes with me, making absolute sure that I was listening. "It's important that you hurry. There isn't much time left."

And without one more word, she left, blending effortlessly into the forest within a couple of seconds.

"So," I muttered slowly. "This means that Cruxis is in…Torrent Forest? The forest beyond the village of the elves…"

"So it would seem…"

Torrent Forest, a few minutes later, Nia's POV

We'd flown to Torrent Forest on the Rheairds, much to my distaste, but apparently, time was short, so I didn't argue. As we flew over the beginning of the treeline, a glint of something caught my eye from down below. I pointed it out to the rest of the group, but they just weren't interested. Somehow, though, I felt it was really important.

I assured them that I'd only be a few seconds, and then jumped off the side of the machine, relishing the freefall down to ground without the cumbersome machine. I used a short blast of air to cushion my fall, and landed as softly as if I'd fallen half a meter.

I instantly found the source of the glint – a carved stone dragon twisted around a glass-like, scarlet sphere. I picked it up, weighing the fragile-looking thing in my hands – it was far lighter than it looked. My curious fingers lightly brushed the sphere's surface – warm to the touch.

A small noise emanated from the sphere – then, Cruxis' voice.

"Is this on? Wait, how am I supposed to know if a sphere is recording? Well, I'll try anyway…Nia, I hope you get this message. If it's someone that knows Nia who finds this, please, give it to her.

"Lately, I've been feeling a force pulling me towards Torrent Forest. In it's very centre…I don't know what I'll find, but I'm sure _something's _there. If you're listening to this, then it's very likely I'm already there. I know exactly where I'm headed; it's just beyond Origin's seal…impossible to miss. I think…it's dangerous, but…I _need _to go there. I haven't got a choice.

"Well…good bye…"

And the sphere stopped. I blinked – something about that goodbye had seemed…too final…

In any case, I quickly flew up to the Rheairds, favouring my angelic wings.

"I know where she is," I said breathlessly, before relaying her message.

With barely a word, the group flew swiftly towards the place described in Cruxis' message. There was a prevailing atmosphere of urgency over everyone, which was so heavy, that it seemed to crush the breath out of my lungs. I briefly wondered what would happen if we were late…then furiously shook the thought from my mind. I _had_ to stay positive.

We arrived at a clearing a short distance away from Origin's shrine. Everyone was tense as they landed, not daring to make a sound. On the other side of the clearing, Cruxis stood, her back to us – seemingly entranced by a pitch-black orb hovering in front of her.

To our surprise, the orbs spoke, in tones so gentle, they rolled calmly across the clearing. Yet, underneath the soothing upper tones, there was an undertone that spoke in unnameable words of something sinister…

"Come to me, child of hatred…I shall free you from your torment."

Cruxis, still in a state of wonderment, slowly raised a hand, brushing it lightly against the orb. I wanted her to stop – something inside me was crying out that this was wrong – yet my voice stuck and stayed silent. However, Yuan found his voice.

"Cruxis, get away from it!" he shouted, with the same urgency that I felt.

Cruxis seemed not to hear, but the orb responded coldly. "Kill them. Do they have the honour of speaking to you?"

I noticed then that Cruxis' hand was slowly slipping inside the orb's surface, getting coated with whatever inky black substance dwelled within it. The darkness crept over her skin, until it reached her eyes. It entered her emerald eyes, casting a shadow over them and making them dull. A few seconds later, her hair, once black, seemed almost as if the colour had leeched out of it, leaving it a glossy silver.

The orb gave off a satisfied air. "Far more like yourself, don't you think? Now, you should take a good long think about who your friends are…and whether they even deserve to live…"

Cruxis turned, her dull eyes sweeping over us. Her hand raised, with her whip-scythe grasped firmly within it.

"They deserve to die?" she asked herself in a monotone voice.

"Kill them. Then, we can bring back Agorned…and rule again…"

The shadows within the orb shifted, seeming to favour the form of a panther, although it's edges were blurred and its form was constantly changing and moving.

"Agorned…" Cruxis muttered curiously. "We could…bring it back?"

Her voice changed from its newfound monotone to passionate.

"Nothing can bring back a world! You're lying!" she shouted suddenly, her weapon flailing at the orb.

This did nothing – the metal glanced off the side of the orb.

"What are you?!" she shouted furiously.

"Your demise. I am justice given a physical form so I may pass judgement upon you. And for your life…you deserve death."

The orb pulsed a dark purple, and suddenly, there was no orb, only the shadows that had previously dwelled within it. The constantly changing creature hissed and roared at Cruxis, slowly building up a large scarlet aura. The creature closed its eyes, for a second looking peaceful and in absolute bliss in the form of a dark furred wolf.

Suddenly, its eyes opened, with a raw fury and hatred that made me step back in surprise. It just seemed impossible for one single person to have that much hatred. The red aura disappeared, being absorbed into Cruxis.

She staggered, then stood up straight, confused. "Was that the best you can do? That didn't hurt a bit!"

The dark creature became feline in appearance, cleaning one slender paw in reply.

The first indication that anything was wrong was the gentle soft splat of a liquid more dense than water hitting the ground – blood. A small gash had appeared on her face, without any warning.

Then, she cried out in pain. It was simple to see why – wounds were appearing all over my friend's body, some far larger and more serious than the initial cut. Her arm twisted back into an unnatural angle with a sickening crunch and a louder scream; she whimpered in pain as blood slowly seeped though her clothes, turning the black material a very dark, sticky, crimson.

However, the worst was yet to come. A deep wound appeared in her shoulder, rendering her right arm useless as it was cut down to the bone. A large gaping hole spread open at her abdomen, allowing blood to pour out in torrents.

"What are you doing to her?!" I shouted, finally finding my voice.

"I've done nothing…she's done this to herself," the creature disdainfully snarled. "All of these wounds have been inflicted on her in her past – I've just reminded her of them. Just goes to show that she wasn't well liked, was she?"

"Shut up! Why are you doing this?!" I shouted, feeling tears creep into my eyes, scorching my face.

"Do you not agree that she deserves it?"

"No, I don't! I don't think any person can have the right to bring judgement upon someone like this!"

"Yet, I am not a person…so that sentimental statement would not apply to me," it hissed.

"You have independent thought, though! So you don't have to do this!"

"I do. It is my purpose. You humans go through life with no purpose…what a waste. And now, she _shall_ suffer before her death."

Cruxis whimpered – she had fallen to the floor, in a growing pool of her own blood. She began to try and crawl away from something of someone unseen, softly moaning.

"No…get it away…go away! I don't want…"

Suddenly, she screamed, such a painful scream that I felt my heart would tear out just by witnessing it. Raine had such a pained expression on her own face that I had the fleeting suspicion that she could sympathise with Cruxis, before far more important things took over.

"Stop this!" Yuan shouted, summoning his wings. I followed his example, and noticed Kratos did the same.

The creature laughed, now a hyena. "She is the strongest of all of you. And yet you have this absurd idea that you can face me in a fight and win? You don't realise yet that I have no quarrel with you, merely with Cruxis. You could just stay out and stay unscathed…"

"But she's our friend!" I protested – the thought of abandoning her made me feel far sicker than the copious amounts of blood pouring from her wounds.

"Just…leave me to die," Cruxis painstakingly muttered. "I've always been hated…I cause death and destruction to everyone I meet. With all my long life…all I've achieved…is failure."

I shook my head. "Don't choose death! Fight this. If you choose death, you'd be taking the easiest option! If you live, you can help repair everything you think you've failed at!"

Some of the old Cruxis returned behind her haunted eyes.

"Wouldn't people be better off if I was gone, though?" she asked weakly.

"We followed you all the way here," Kratos pointed out quietly.

"We'd miss you..." I agreed.

"Really? Then…I have to be strong enough…after all, I've gone through all this before…"

The creature snarled, sinking large feline claws into Cruxis' ankle. "What a hassle…just die! Or can't you do that properly, either?!"

"I…will…not…give in," she said resolutely, staggering to her feet despite her pain.

The creature sprang back, muttering something in an ancient language at a frenzied pace.

Cruxis screamed out in pain again, despite her best attempt not to. Her skin was turning dark, unnaturally black against the gaping red wounds. Her nose and jaw grew outwards from the rest of her face, preventing her from crying out again. Dark, bat-like wings burst from her back. A long black tail sprouted from the base of her spine.

Changes happened so fast that I could barely keep track of them. Skin turned to scales, eyes turned crimson and teeth became fangs.

"A…dragon?" I questioned, my eyes wide.

For that is what Cruxis had become – a large, black dragon.

"Now, if your friends don't want to die themselves, they'll _have_ to kill you…" the creature announced with a satisfied air.

"What do you mean?" Yuan shouted.

"She can't control the dragon she's become…she'll kill you if she gets the chance," the shadowy creature made a noise as if contemplating something. "I believe I can take my leave."

And with that, the creature disappeared into shadows, and the dragon-Cruxis roared.

When the dragon swiped at us, we realised the creature's words were true.

"I can't control it," Cruxis said despairingly, her unearthly voice echoing around my mind.

She then blew a ball of fire towards Kratos whom froze in terror.

"No!" I shouted, and on pure instinct directed the fireball towards me, absorbing it.

I rushed to him, afraid that the fire may have triggered a relapse into his fear. Wait, did I say afraid? I was absolutely petrified with terror.

"Are you alright?"

I must have looked terrified, too, tears were streaming down my face, leaving burnt trails along my cheeks, but I was past caring. All I could focus on was him – for the love of mana, please, let him be alright…

"I'm fine." There was only the slightest waver in his voice, for which I was grateful. "I remembered your promise."

I smiled weakly. "I'm not about to break it."

I remembered all too well my promise that fire would not harm him if I were around…it was a promise I'd remember and keep on my dying breath if I needed to.

A red spell circle formed under the dragon, which I quickly recognised as Eruption. Kratos, Yuan and Raine blocked the spell, I merely allowed it to hit me, and it relieved some of the nausea I had felt since the creature had first appeared.

"It can cast spells?" Raine asked with a sneer.

"I can, but I think it's only fire and air spells I can cast…" Cruxis said uncertainly. "Wait... 'it'?! Last time I checked I was still female!"

"Then we're fine…" I said slowly, ignoring Cruxis' small outburst. "I can protect everyone if I have to."

"No!" Cruxis shouted. "What if I slash you with my claws…or my tail. Just run…"

"No! There must be something we can do! If it can be done, it can be undone, right?"

Yuan thought while I absorbed another fireball from the dragon-formed Cruxis.

"Resurrection may work," he said eventually. "But it's only a slim chance…"

"It can't hurt to try though, can it?"

"It's a healing spell, I don't think it has the power to do harm."

"Then, Raine?" I asked, turning towards the healer.

However, things would never be that easy, would they?

"Why should I help you?" she said haughtily, conveniently forgetting that I had helped search for her.

"Because," I muttered grimly, gritting my teeth, "you could end up dead."

"I think I can defend myself from a mere dragon."

"Who's talking about Cruxis? I'll kill you myself if I have to!"

Kratos gently rested a hand on my arm, stopping me from carrying out my threat.

"No, I wouldn't _really_ kill her – you know that," I reassured him, although, for a second…

"Raine, I, too, would appreciate it if you could try using Resurrection," Yuan told the woman.

Defeated, Raine was finally spurred into action, and moments later; Cruxis was bathed in a pale white glow. When it faded, a large black dragon still remained behind.

"It didn't work!" I shouted in anguish.

"No, it did," Cruxis said slowly, her dragon form flexing a fore claw experimentally. "I can move by myself again…even if I am still a dragon."

"This presents a slight problem," Yuan announced.

"What?"

"Well, how are we going to accommodate her? I doubt she could fit in the Renegade base as she is…"

Cruxis seemed shocked by this. "You mean: you'd want me to stay with you? After everything I've done?"

I smiled. "You're our friend – we wouldn't just leave you on your own!"

I realised that I had had to crane my neck to say this – Cruxis' dragon body really was tall. If she stretched her neck or stood on her hind legs she could have rivalled the surrounding trees. There was no way she'd fit in even the largest and most spacious of the rooms in the Renegade base.

"If Cruxis has no objections, she could always stay outside the base. It's highly unlikely to rain in the dessert this time of year, and it is possible construct a shelter to keep the worst of the sandstorms away…" Kratos suggested.

"That's okay with me," Cruxis agreed – though I found myself wondering: what choice did she have?

Slowly, we wandered back through the dappled sunlight of the forest. I was relieved – so much had gone wrong lately, I had feared something dreadful might have happened here, too. In comparison, Cruxis being turned into a dragon didn't seem to bad.

"I'll have to train in this form, so I don't become a burden to you all," Cruxis said after a moment's thought. "I co-" she stopped suddenly, shocking everyone into silence.

"What is it?" I whispered.

"I can hear…someone's following us."

Now I stopped to listen intently, drawing on every ounce of my angelic senses, I could hear it too. Footsteps, that, while hurried, seemed careful to not make too much noise – although leaves rustling was unavoidable, the feet seemed to purposefully avoid the many twigs and branches littering the floor.

All of us were highly alert, weapons were drawn silently and wings flared out, scanning the trees in the direction of the footsteps. Suddenly, a boy tumbled out of the bushes, presumably having tripped over something.

I looked at him – he was dressed in clothes fairly similar to a commoner's in Sylvarant – beige breeches, a beige, short tunic with short sleeves and a dark brown jacket. All of these seemed to be made of hard-wearing cotton, and it was easy to see where the clothes had been repaired multiple times. This would have suggested that he was fairly poor – but he seemed far too clean, and gave off an educated air.

He had neat brown hair cut short, and mossy green eyes, which were staring rather apprehensively at the assembled group of angels, a dragon and a half-elf.

"Who are you?" Yuan asked rather coldly – I noticed that his swallow blade hadn't left a fighting stance yet.

"L-Linori Terref…" he stammered.

Curiously, a small ferret had emerged from somewhere, and was perched carefully on one shoulder, nudging his neck insistently.

"I know we have to do this, Bandit," he whispered quietly to the creature. "Doesn't stop it from being scary, though…"

More loudly, and far more nervously, he asked, "Can I have your assurance that you won't attack?"

"That depends on what our reason would be for attacking you," I said slowly.

"Then, can I ask – is your name Nia Jones?"

I eyed him mistrustfully. "It is…how do you know?"

"Then you're an elemental, correct?" he asked, ignoring my question.

"She is," Cruxis said, seeming to realise something.

"No wonder we all failed – Hazel didn't see this…" Linori said, smiling to himself.

"Will you start speaking sense?" I asked, my patience wearing thin.

"My apologies. My…companions and I, we've been following Cruxis Silverwind for a long time. Eventually, we tracked her down to this world, and we…cast a curse on her. It was meant to kill her, but… To begin with, it stopped following orders, taking control of her body to kill Stephen. That's when Hazel and I had our doubts about the curse – it was only supposed to target her, not bringing anyone else into the equation...much less both elementals... Yet, as you saw just now, it was happy enough to bring you all into danger if it meant her death. The curse isn't working properly."

"And what about your motives?" I asked angrily. "Do you still want to kill Cruxis?"

"No," he said bluntly, shocking me. "She's not the same person she was when we first thought of hunting her down. Both me and Hazel tried telling them this…"

"Wait, who is 'them'? Any names?"

"Magic, Mystik, Tyrio and Arcana. We all travelled together, and the curse is a joint creation."

"As good as all this is to know, it isn't as helpful as perhaps…oh, I don't know…taking the curse off?"

"We can't. It's impossible to remove or change in any way – we made sure of that when we cast it."

And Cruxis laughed. "You really know nothing do you? I bet you studied for years and everything. Were you so smart that they missed the first Demonic Law with you?" she asked scathingly.

"No. But it's true, we checked that curse for loopholes and flaws and any imperfections were eradicated."

"Just recite the law."

Linori sighed, and grudgingly muttered, "A strength of a power can be made a weakness in all situations. Nothing exists that is perfect."

"And you insist that you've made an unchangeable curse? You admitted yourself that it isn't following orders – it's so unstable that it's changing itself!"

I blinked – Cruxis sounded like she knew what she was talking about, for once, yet I was completely confused.

"Excuse me?"

"Oh, right, Nia. Everyone has a demon – a power inside them. In your family, your demon – your power with fire and air – awakes automatically at the age of twelve due to the construction of your world. But everyone else generally goes their whole life without having their power awoken. Except in Agorned. Normally, demons are awoken when they are ten by a failsafe ritual. Also, some people do a great deal of study into their demon and become very powerful."

"But that would mean that Linori…and his companions…" I said slowly, the weight of realisation crushing me.

"That's right," Linori confirmed. "We are from Agorned...the only destroyed world…"

* * *

Anyway, apologies again for a (severely) late chapter – I'm wracked with guilt about it!

Starting a shameless plug – I've started writing a story that takes place roughly 14 to 16 years after Regeneration, called Saralli Caira High. It focuses on Nia's daughter, and the first ten chapters are up already, so feel free to check it out.

Reviews please! Jana/Lady-Jana-Sparrow does still exist and help with this – it just tends to be me writing things down!


	21. Chapter 21

Wow, I got this up pretty quick…well, for Regeneration, anyway… 

I don't own Tales of Symphonia. I own Agorned, but not any other worlds I may mention. I also own: Nia, Stephen (or his corpse, anyway…that's just scary), Tyrio, Linori and Arcana. Cruxis, Magic, Mystik and Hazel are based on real people.

* * *

_"We are from Agorned...the only destroyed world…"_

I gaped at him. How come everything seemed to revolve around Agorned? Did he hate me for being there when his world became destroyed?

"I'm…"

"Sorry?" he interrupted. "For what? We know it was Stephen who destroyed our world – that was possibly why the curse also targeted him, fuelled by our collective anger…"

"I could have done…something…anything…about Agorned…" I said uncertainly – Linori showed no regret at Stephen's death, and I wondered vaguely why I was still talking to him.

"Why bother tracking me down?" Cruxis asked impatiently, small flares erupting from her nostrils. "You won't admit that you can change the curse, so…"

"We can try and help, but nothing will happen with the rest of my companions as they are at the moment. They still believe that Cruxis is completely evil, with no hope of change."

"I resent that!" Cruxis objected. "I have never once done an 'evil' deed in my life – apart from the few things that curse _made _me do! I may have done a few…grey deeds, but never completely black!"

"So that cult you started in Agorned?.." Linori asked sceptically.

"If you'd checked your history, you'd know that they only started trying to take over the world and killing people _after _I left!"

"And there's the organization in this world named after you…"

"Again, I had nothing to do with the ruling of the organization! Mithos only named it after me!"

"Joining the military in that weird world?"

"Well, that was- wait, what weird world?"

"I think it was called Amestris…"

"Oh, that was only to study alchemy and gain access to the library – I left before any wars started."

"Becoming a scientist for an evil super company?"

"Again, only to study different sciences in different worlds! Look, the point is, everyone tries to make me out worse than I am!"

"Okay, but you have to try and persuade my friends that – all of whom would probably kill you before letting you come anywhere near them – we all have awakened demons, and powerful ones at that…"

Cruxis gave a sigh. "What demons have you got, then?"

"I have the power to weaken a person's demon. My brother, Tyrio, can do the opposite – strengthen other people's demons. Magic and Mystik both have the power to perform spells and rituals by instinct rather than book learning – Magic uses objects to channel her power and Mystik uses words. Arcana can shapeshift into any form, animal, human or monster, and Hazel – you've already met her – can see the future."

"Hazel? The weird girl who found Raine?" I wondered. "That would explain how she knew my name…"

"I don't care what demons you and your friends have," Cruxis said flatly. "If you were amateur enough to believe you could create a flawless curse, then I can crush you all easily."

"I don't get it, though…" I complained. "_Why _would it be impossible?"

Linori shrugged. "We were always taught that it just was…"

"Humans are imperfect creatures, so anything created by a human will also be imperfect," Cruxis said bluntly.

I wasn't sure I liked this Cruxis who always knew the answers – it seemed every time she had to explain something that she was drawing on deep, painful experiences.

"One way or another, I need to see your 'friends', Linori," Cruxis said matter-of-factly.

"You couldn't take them all, especially not in your current form…" Linori explained, gesturing at her large, black, scaly body.

"She won't be alone," I promised. "Besides, didn't you say something about me being an elemental? I'm sure I could take a few of you. And if you and Hazel don't fight us – on the obvious condition that we won't seriously harm or kill anyone – then that's only four people…doesn't sound too difficult…"

"Well…" Linori said slowly.

"Isn't that why you came?" Yuan asked. "You and Hazel felt guilty, so you came to inform Cruxis of what was happening – it was the only thing you could do. And now there's another opportunity for you to help…so, what will you do?"

Linori sighed. "I'll tell Hazel. We won't fight you. And we're staying near Luin, in the forests."

Without a further word, he left, blending effortlessly into the forest.

Immediately, Kratos told me, "You aren't going to go just you and Cruxis. I know I can't talk you out of this…so I'm coming with you."

I gazed into his eyes – seeing the concern he had.

"We'll be fine…and I don't want to put you in danger because of me…"

"I can find danger perfectly well by myself. And I need to be there. At the very worst, I'll just…follow you on my own…" he gave a hint of a smile – we both knew it was the sort of thing Lloyd would say.

"Alright, then," I smiled. "Besides, how bad could these Agornedians be?"

A few hours later, we found out…

We had attempted to creep up on them, but somehow, they'd been forewarned – Cruxis had shouted something about a bird of prey, and I'd seen the eagle out of the corner of my eye, but hadn't seen the need for concern. However, it seemed that it was a spy of some sort for the group.

Now, chaos ruled the small clearing. One of the teenage girls had turned into a large, metallic spiky creature, which was currently trying to engage Kratos in a 'swordfight' – she was using large hooked claws to attack ruthlessly – yet I couldn't possibly give him a hand. I needed to protect us all from the relentless and powerful attacks thrown at us by Magic and Mystik. When I had a chance, I tried to render the tall boy useless, as he was making their spells and incantations all the more powerful.

Cruxis, despite being a large dragon was surprisingly agile and very powerful. Spell after spell left her, leaving deep, smoking trenches in the ground – yet the Agornedians seemed not to notice, and never got hit.

A tall teenage girl with black and blue hair was chanting incantations at a rapid pace, only for their effects to slam into my shield of air – but at this rate, either I'd tire, or they'd find a way to bypass the structure.

The last of the combatants attacked using the objects around her – the earth, the trees and leaves – by making hand gestures and signs.

"This is ridiculous!" I shouted. "How are we supposed to stop them from using their demons without knocking them unconscious or killing them?"

"You're regretting saying that you won't kill them, now, aren't you, Nia?" Cruxis asked, casting Eruption at the girls.

"Of course not! I'm just saying this is far more difficult than I thought!"

I sent a hurricane-powered blast of air at the boy, knocking him off his feet into a nearby oak tree. The girl with violet and black hair looked livid and the oak came to life to batter my shield with powerful, heavy branches.

"Brilliant!" I muttered to myself. "Had to be _oak_…oak's so difficult to set on fire, dammit! Why couldn't it be pine? Beech? But no, a huge, hundred year-old oak…"

"Stop complaining!" Cruxis retorted, casting a fire spell at the tree, leaving a scorch mark, but not setting it alight. " Oh, you _are_ right – it _is_ difficult to set on fire…"

"Who's the person with the fire demon here? Of course I'm right!"

I sent a massive blast of white-hot flame at the tree, letting the shield fall for a second. The flames enveloped the tree, finally causing it to burn. I quickly rebuilt the wall of air, ignoring the fatigue at the back of my mind. I had far more important things to worry about.

"Flames, become choked and douse yourselves," the blue and black hair girl ordered, and the tree put itself out.

I rolled my eyes. "That's what you'd call an 'oh shit' moment, isn't it?"

Cruxis ignored my remark. "Okay, Nia, listen _very _carefully to me. I would do this myself, but…I lack opposable thumbs right now, if no one had noticed…"

"What do you want me to do?"

"Find my bag, and get a pearl out of it."

"How the hell is that supposed to help?!"

In any case, I retrieved a shiny, opaque, white orb from her bag, which had been abandoned behind us at the beginning of the battle.

"Also, get out a few leaves of mistletoe and chamomile, and crush everything into a powder."

I followed these strange instructions, keeping the wall of air strong – the Agornedian's attacks had intensified since I began this.

"Using the powder, draw the rune of Frigga."

"The _what _of _who_?!"

"It looks like the letter 'p' if you drew it with only straight lines. Just do it!"

Carefully, I let one line of powder trickle out the form the spine of the 'p', and then two smaller, diagonal lines meeting to form the top.

"Last step, Nia. Go over the pattern with fire – scorch it into the ground."

My finger grew a blue flame that I used to touch over the rune quickly. Suddenly, the fighting just…stopped. The Agornedians still glared at us hatefully, yet they weren't fighting anymore.

"What did you do?" the girl with violet and black hair asked vehemently.

"The pearl releases anger, the mistletoe brings harmony and the chamomile calms and protects. When woven together under the rune of Frigga, which is a rune of harmony and trust, you can't help but stop fighting. And Nia sealing it with fire has two added affects. First, it's very difficult to remove, having been made by an elemental, and second, if she attacks you, the spell is forfeit."

I just stared. Cruxis had never…ever thought ahead this completely before.

The Agornedians glared at her with such hatred…it reminded me of the creature…and now it was easy to see that the curse was their creation.

"Let's start by being civil, shall we?" I asked, breaking up the tension in the atmosphere. "My name's Nia. I'm an elemental with power over fire and air, and I come from Reality."

A slight flicker of nervousness found its way into the Agornedians' expressions at the knowledge that I was an elemental, yet it was quickly suppressed.

Kratos followed my lead. "I'm Kratos, an inhabitant of this world."

"Jade Lucrecia Cruxis Silverwind – _ex_-Agornedian. I can summon any creature I wish…when I'm in human form, at least."

Now it was the Agornedian hunters' turn.

"Magic Swn-y-môr. Born in Agorned, on the wooded isle of Coeddu. My demon allows me to use magic though physical catalysts," the girl with black and violet hair spat, her violet eyes flashing dangerously.

"Mystik Swn-y-môr – Magic's twin. I can also use magic, though words," the girl with blue tips to her hair introduced, giving us all a searching look, as if evaluating us and assessing how much of a risk we were.

"Tyrio Terref," the boy said, taking a stance next to Magic, ready to protect her, despite our spell. "I can strengthen anyone's demon."

Finally, the metallic creature turned back into a teenage girl with blood-red crimson eyes and very dark brown hair. She turned her gaze upon all of us – I had the feeling she was trying to see who flinched at her eye colour, but no one did.

"I'm Arcana Minore," she chirped happily, bouncing up to take a closer look at the dragon-formed Cruxis. "So, our curse did that to you?"

Cruxis, somewhat taken aback by her strange behaviour, only just nodded.

"Oh, wow. Hey, guys, it wasn't supposed to do this, right?" she asked her companions loudly.

"No, Arcana," Magic said flatly.

"To think this happened by an accident…I'm gonna need to get to the bottom of this…"

"Arcana! We are not on their side!" Tyrio shouted. "Stop acting like it!"

"Aww…but I was just curious…" she whined, looking pitifully dejected.

"Stop complaining! Just be glad you've gotten to see the affects of the curse – if things had gone to plan, you wouldn't even have seen this far," Tyrio yelled, showing how annoyed he was with the hyper girl.

"So much for being civil…" I muttered. "Look, we don't want to fight with you."

"Because we'd win, obviously," Mystik pointed out.

"I doubt that," Kratos said bluntly.

"Says the one without an awakened demon!" Arcana scoffed.

"We didn't even have everyone here today! Hazel and Linori aren't here, so we don't have our full group!" Magic crowed, trying to win this newly started battle of words.

"Neither did we," I said offhand, thinking of everyone that had stayed behind at the Renegade base. "But, you don't even know where Linori and Hazel are – besides not being here – let alone _why_ they weren't here to help."

"What?!"

Well, that shut them up…

"They didn't agree with the plan to curse Cruxis, did they?" I asked with a small smile.

"So…Linori would betray us?!" Tyrio snarled, angered. "I always knew he was a worthless wimp of a brother. If I ever get my hands on him…"

"Don't be rash. You may end up regretting those words," Kratos advised.

"I wouldn't have thought they'd do something like this, though…" Mystik said slowly.

"I did!" Arcana said, with no trace of remorse or hate in her voice or demeanour. "I overheard them talking about it, but they tried to cover it up when I came to speak to them."

Arcana truly was odd…

"Our original purpose was to ask for your aid in removing the curse," Kratos explained, when it was plain that no one else would.

"Forget it! One, if we even wanted to remove the curse, why should we help an evil person like Cruxis? And two, that curse is impossible to remove – or did the traitors skip that part?"

"I have had it with so called 'powerful' demon users who don't accept the first law of demonic powers as absolute!" Cruxis shouted in frustration. "I bet even Nia could remember it better than these idiots!"

"Excuse me? '_Even_ Nia'?" I asked, glaring at my friend.

"Sorry, I just meant that you haven't been trained and have only heard the law once before…"

I sighed, but decided to let it go…for now…

"Anyway, Cruxis isn't evil," I insisted.

"Well, we don't feel like helping anyway," Magic argued childishly.

"I'd help you guys!" Arcana piped up, only to be ignored by the vast majority.

Arcana fell into a sulk, her eyes and ears becoming canine, so she could – quite literally – give everyone puppy-dog eyes.

"No!" Magic barked firmly – she wouldn't be swayed by something that simple.

A dark-furred wolf joined Magic's side, growling at Arcana with its hackles raised.

Arcana was seemingly unfazed by this, turning herself into a larger wolf and growling back. The wolf backed away – she'd never intended to attack Arcana, only scare her.

Arcana turned back into her human form. An eagle gave a loud cry, before swooping down to perch on Arcana's outstretched arm. She tickled the soft feathers underneath his beak while he spoke to her. Naturally, I could understand, seeing as he was a bird, but it surprised me that Arcana could also understand him.

"Linori told Bandit to tell me, to tell you that him and Hazel are nearby. They can hear the whole conversation. Hazel says that there's no point in this, as in the end, all of us Agornedians will be divided by this, and end up staying in their base until we make up our minds."

At this point, the eagle turned to me. "She also said that you can understand me. Greetings. My name is Dashita."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Nia."

I was used to getting strange looks for talking to birds – I shrugged this one off pretty easily.

"Magic? Would you consider keeping an open mind about Cruxis for a couple of days?" Kratos asked – ever the diplomat.

Tyrio whispered something in her ear, which to my hearing sounded like: "We don't have to make a decision now – if we want to help after a few days, we can…"

A jet-black lynx purred his agreement beside them.

"After everything…we've spent years hunting her down, and now, when we've finally got her…"

"I know it sounds stupid, Magic, but we can just take a couple of days to think about it," he whispered.

"Also, if we agree to consider it, they'd be in our debt. At the very least, they'd have to offer us a place to stay for the night, and a meal…" Mystik seemed to think like a traveller, and I wondered how long they'd been travelling for.

I blinked – so far, Hazel's prediction had been spot on. Yet, why was I so surprised by this? I knew she had a demon of prophesy…maybe I was just prejudiced against it by the popular opinion of fortunetellers in Reality…

"Of course we _would_ offer you a place to stay…" Cruxis said, pretending she hadn't overheard the whole exchange. "There's plenty of room at the Renegade Base, after all…"

And this was how we came to share the base with six Agornedians as well as: one wolf, one lynx, a bat, a ferret, an eagle and a snake…

* * *

People, heed my warning! Do not write two long-term stories at the same time! (Saralli Caira High and Regeneration) And don't set yourself stupid targets like trying to update them both within the week! The problem is (as Magic and Jade in real-life can fully appreciate) that I want to finish Regeneration before a certain point in Saralli Caira High (otherwise, it's spoiler-ific!)

Anyway, I'm really glad I've got this up so quickly! Please review!


	22. Chapter 22

Mez: Akira is a pretty depressing film to watch when you're ill…

Jana: Why say that? This is _Regeneration_!

Nannon: (_yelling_) And why haven't I been given a proper mention yet?!

Mez: Okay, in case you're wondering who the hijacker is, Nannon is Magic's creator, who – by the way – owns a black Labrador called Layla…not quite a wolf, and she's just as bossy and loud in real life.

Nannon: (_grins_) Yep!

Mez: Back to business… I'm sorry for the delay – I just don't seem to be getting enough time to write, and I'm pestered to write this, and Saralli Caira High…not to mention the random ideas I keep coming up with…

Jana: If Nannon's managed to hijack this disclaimer, then what about Tegg? And…

Mez: We are not having six people doing the disclaimer! (Well, five, seeing as Bex has no real connections to this story…) The disclaimer will become twice as long as the story and talk about Jaffa cakes having amorous relationships!

Nannon: It'd be funny, though!

Mez: (sigh) I don't own Tales of Symphonia. I own Nia, Tyrio, Linori and Arcana. Jana owns Cruxis, Nannon owns Magic, Tegg owns Mystik and Harad owns Hazel.

* * *

The first week of living with the Agornedians seemed infinitely longer than seven days, somehow. They brought with them a whole host of problems, and we were only too aware of them. First, they were travellers by habit, and so, they tended to get – for want of a better word – fidgety – if kept in the same place for too often. Of course, this was only the tip of the very tall and dense proverbial iceberg.

Both Magic and Tyrio had very loud, bossy personalities, and their brief, yet intense, disputes often echoed down the corridors. It didn't help that Lloyd – also a leader, yet less assertive than those two – tried to defuse their arguments, and just ended up getting caught up in them, instead. One such argument had escalated to such a point that he'd ended up with a 'shallow' wolf bite on his right ankle and had limped slightly for two days. After that, he vowed to stay out of their problems.

Arcana was another problem in a confined space. With her constantly hyper and joking personality, combined with her ability to shape shift and a base full of 'unsuspecting victims', you could guarantee that she'd be planning a joke on somebody at any given point in any day, even if you didn't know on who. The pranks ranged in severity from pretending to be a ghost in the middle of the night to setting the fire alarm off – which in turn, set the sprinkler system off, very nearly drenching me, which would have hurt…a lot…but also ruining several computer systems and other electronics in the base.

Indirectly, the Agornedians brought another problem with them - their animals. Personally, I had no problem with Dashita, Arcana's eagle. He was a vast contrast to Arcana's hyper demeanour – calm, collected and well spoken. To be honest, Bandit, Linori's ferret was the cleanest ferret I had ever met, and very friendly. However, a few days after the Agornedians had moved in, I noticed that around the ferret, Kratos had a strained quality to his movements and speech. After a gentle interrogation, I discovered that even as a child, he'd had a small fear of ferrets, otters, and stoats – apparently it was something about the body shape…

Unfortunately for Kratos, Bandit found out, and due to a lack of entertaining things for an intelligent ferret to do in the Renegade base, he followed the mercenary around like a bounding shadow. We had a similar problem with Mystik's snake, Nagas. She was a beautiful, black skinned serpent…when she could be seen. As Nagas soon discovered, there are plenty of places for a dark-coloured, relatively small and extremely flexible animal to hide in the Renegade base, and no one ever knew when or where she would reappear. Jet, the bat had a similar sense of stealth, but at least when he took flight, he tended to be quite noticeable, and was mainly active in the night, in any case.

Openly, though, it was Layla, the wolf and Kaiser, the lynx, which everyone had the most problems with. They almost always stayed together as a pair – much like their human counterparts, Magic and Tyrio, come to think of it. It was difficult to resist the fight or flight human instinct, which kicked in when two large, reputedly dangerous animals padded down the corridors in the opposite direction to you. After a few days, the novelty and shock wore off, and we could attempt, at least, to see a large feline and large canine strolling down a corridor together as a normal occurrence.

It wasn't until the first spat happened that we realised that there was such a big problem with Kaiser and Layla's large forms. Luckily, Bandit was following Kratos at the time, and I was with Kratos, when a rumbling growl echoed down to meet us. Somehow, I knew it wasn't directed at us, yet I couldn't stop a slight stab of human terror flash through me at the sound.

In a flash of black, and shining white – which I slowly realised were teeth – a writhing, struggling ferret was being attacked by two creatures far larger than itself. Stupidly, without much thought of myself, I dived in, grabbing Layla roughly by the scruff of her neck and using strength I never knew I had, hauled the wolf out of the fray. While Kaiser was still pursuing Bandit, at least now, the ferret wasn't out-numbered.

In fact, the ferret had a brilliant idea, and – claws digging into cloth – climbed his way up Kratos, putting the human in between Bandit and an ivory death. Kratos completely froze – whether it was from his fear of ferrets, I wasn't quite sure, as Magic strode up towards us, demanding I let go of Layla. Noticing that the wolf seemed humbled in her presence, I did so slowly and the wolf relaxed, fixing her gaze on her violet-eyed mistress.

"Layla, do don't that again, okay? It's childish, puppy," Magic told the canine, who whined endearingly, making it hard to believe that just seconds ago, she'd been a snarling, vicious ball of fur.

It was strange, the way Magic talked to Layla – in a way, she was a completely different person to the bossy, loud, leader figure whom we saw on a daily basis. There was also a weird accent that I just couldn't place that she used only when she spoke to the animal.

Magic, as she walked away, ensured that Layla was following at her heel. Kaiser looked distraught, before following the wolf.

I took a look at the trembling ferret on Kratos' shoulder, lifting him off the stiff, purple-clad shoulder.

"…It's only a ferret…" I murmured admonishingly, holding the ferret gently in my hands.

"Are you alright, Bandit? Do you want us to help you find Linori?"

Bandit nodded to both, so we spent a few minutes tracking the mousy-haired human down, before explaining what had happened. To our surprise, Linori looked ashamed – it had seemed to me that Bandit had only been defending himself, if anything, and the conflict hadn't been his fault.

"Tyrio still hates me… He has a right, to, of course – to him, it would seem like I've betrayed them all…" he explained.

A deep look of guilt flashed across his face, and I couldn't help but sympathise with him.

"He's your brother – I'm sure he doesn't _hate _you… He's angry with you, true, but he will realise why you helped us. And I'm sure Cruxis appreciates what you've done too – now, we are closer to saving her – if only just a step."

"But…he's my _brother_… I shouldn't have done that to him…or any of them…"

"While he has been living here, I've got a good measure of your brother," I said, smiling slightly to lighten his mood. "And he has such a thick skull sometimes…the only way you could have done anything to make him listen is something as drastic as this. He's probably more angry at himself now that he's realised his mistake…"

Linori smiled slightly at this. "Maybe…thanks. Right now, though, I'd like to be alone…"

I nodded, noting Bandit was moving animatedly – presumably, he was talking to Linori, and I thought they needed to talk about some things alone.

A few days after this incident, Linori tracked down his brother for a talk, and even though I didn't hear it myself, I knew it must have gone well – Linori and Bandit were alive and unharmed. Linori cheered up, too.

I often went outside the base – mostly because I thought Cruxis must get lonely outside on her own, even though she'd never admit it. However, I also took the chance to soak up the sun's rays.

Today was one such day – the sun was brightly blazing, I'd almost stood on Nagas and decided that it would be far safer for me and all animals involved if I were outside the base.

"How are things?" the jet-black dragon asked.

"Hectic," I replied with a sigh, flopping down on the soft sand and summarising the week.

Cruxis waited until I was finished before asking – with a small quiver of hope in her voice, "Have they decided…about me?"

"Not yet, but things are looking up. I think if we persuade Magic, that's the job done. I mean, Hazel, Linori and Arcana already want to try and help, Mystik will follow whatever Magic says and Tyrio…Magic would tell him in such a way that he'd believe he had chosen to help all by himself. Either that, or have a shouting argument about it, which Magic is likely to win…"

Cruxis cringed back into the shadow of the wooden structure we'd set up by the side of the base.

"Well, I hope they hurry up soon – it's hot out here!" she grumbled. "Whose idea was it to come to the desert base, anyway? I have _black_ skin – I just soak up the heat!"

"You'd complain that you were too cold in the icecaps," I remarked, smirking.

"Shut up, I'm _trying _to complain!"

"Okay, shutting up!" I replied cheerfully. I knew Cruxis wasn't really that angry – just annoyed.

It put things into perspective, though – Cruxis couldn't even try to change the situation she was in by herself – she was dependant on everyone else, especially the Agornedians and their decision.

From then on, I kept trying to talk to Magic about Cruxis, but she stubbornly resisted every positive comment I made with a negative one – most of which I'd never heard about before. Within a few days, I realised it was pointless – we'd need some different tactics.

I wandered through base one night – when most people were asleep, and there were less distractions, I found it easier to think – when I passed the rooms that the Agornedians were using…and found something that looked suspiciously like a cigarette on the floor.

I frowned – I didn't know they smoked…

Something didn't look quite right about it – it was home rolled, but I'd seen home rolled cigarettes all my life, thanks to having a father, and then later, a step-father that smoked. Lighting the end tentatively, I choked at the smoke that was released – that was _not _tobacco smoke! While still coughing and spluttering, I doused the end of the 'cigarette' and returned it to the floor. I found that I really didn't want to know what they smoked…

A few days later, we were urgently summoned to the main room by Yuan. As I watched the room fill up, I mused that even in this fairly large room, six extra people and their animals made the place seem infinitely smaller somehow.

Yuan swiftly explained that the sand worms in the desert had been acting strangely lately, and he feared that they might become hostile and attack the base, as they had been drawing closer for a few days now. The idea was for at least three people besides Cruxis to be outside at all times, ready to raise an alert and fight off the oversized worms, if the need arose.

The Agornedian's looked sceptical – maybe this sounded a bit too much like hard work to them, and technically, they were our guests. However they didn't raise any complaints, so a timetable was drawn up. I volunteered for one of the day shifts – thinking mainly of staying warm easier, rather than stay outside during the incredibly cold nights.

It turned out that there were five groups of three, and one group of two under this plan. I was doing the earliest morning shift along with Linori and Hazel. Then, Magic, Tyrio and Presea would take over by mid-morning. Arcana, Genis and Sheena stayed out from the afternoon through to the evening, to be relieved by Regal, Raine and Mystik. They would stay out for the first few hours of darkness, then, the proper nightshifts would begin. Yuan was smart enough to place those without the need to sleep on the night shifts, with the exception of myself, so Yuan, Zelos and Colette had one of the nightshifts, with Kratos and Lloyd taking the remaining slot.

I soon realised that the time outside was fairly boring, but not too taxing, and for the most part, we just chatted for our four hours of time. As for everyone else… I got the impression that Magic and Tyrio either argued or talked – either way, they ignored Cruxis and to a lesser extent, Presea. Arcana seemed to have fun, according to Cruxis, but both Genis and Sheena threatened bodily harm to her within the week – they were less amused... Regal, Raine and Mystik seemed rather quiet as a group – I could imagine Regal trying to start a conversation, but because they all had so little in common, the conversations would often run short. Lloyd and Kratos, by comparison, had lots to talk about, and I was happy they had the time together. They'd never really had the chance to talk, so to me, it seemed a way – however small – of making up for the lost time in Lloyd's childhood. The final group – Yuan, Zelos and Colette…well, Zelos was his normal womanising self, Colette was her normal innocent and naïve self, and Yuan probably wanted to hit his head against a wall. Still, he had Cruxis to talk to, and since they shared a millennium of memories, they had a lot to talk about.

It was after about a week of this routine that the sandworms eventually did attack – as luck would have it, on _my _shift, and early in the morning. A large, fleshy mound of sand and teeth burst out from the ground, spraying fine grains of sand everywhere, temporarily blinding us.

I yelled quickly into the radio transmitter, before looking at the creature. Even only partially out of the ground, it was easily as tall as Cruxis, in her current, dragon form. Each tooth that surrounded a circular maw of a mouth was impossibly sharp and about half my height. It gave a low, enraged snarl that shook the sand, before lunging violently towards us.

We soon found out that despite its size, it was incredibly fast, and out running it by conventional methods was near impossible. I also found out that Linori could do very little to combat the creature – as his demon was to weaken other people's demons. Unfortunately, Hazel was only slightly more use – she knew where the worm would turn, and, when it went underground, where it would re-emerge.

Luckily, Cruxis was more use than those two, and it seemed she'd been practising her spells since being turned into a dragon. She used more and more large-radius fire spells, which I took, twisted and wove them into their most efficient shape, adding my own power to the fray. I knew the fire only had a limited affect, though – the sandworm dwells in the desert, after all. But we were merely stalling for time.

Barely a minute after I had raised the alarm, the group poured out of the building, ready to fight. A skilful explosion of spells took place, as very few people wanted to physically fight the creature. In particular, I paid attention to the Agornedian's fighting style, having only ever seen it in use once, and at that time, I didn't exactly have time to take note.

Arcana merely launched herself into the fray after transforming her skin into some rocky substance that was unlikely to get harmed. Her hands, though, seemed to be coated with razor-sharp metal that shone in the glaring sun fiercely.

Mystik chanted spells with such fervour that the very words seemed tangible.

"Fingers of omnipotent ice capture and prevent all escape. Resistance is impossible – futile. Thousands of sharp needles impale. The needles shatter, making crimson leak from within."

(Mez: …I've just watched the three volumes of Loveless and read all seven volumes…I think it's rubbed off on me…)

With Magic around, the sand was no longer a safe haven for the sandworm, as she prevented its every attempt to burrow down into the sand by solidifying it beneath the creature.

Tyrio strengthened the demons of the two girls – that was ridiculously clear to see, even to me.

The fight took a long time – almost an hour. Even though we were far more powerful than the creature, and vastly outnumbered it, it just soaked up attacks with an inhuman endurance and stamina. Eventually, it collapsed to the sand, unable to take any more.

"Is it dead?" Arcana asked curiously – poking the flesh with a metal-tipped finger.

"No – it's just unconscious," Yuan clarified.

"What?!"

"Jeez, evolution loved these guys, didn't it? We've been mercilessly casting spells at it's hide for almost an hour, now – that sounds impressive _before _you realise how many angels there are in the group…" I moaned. "And when this guy wakes up, he is not going to be pleased!"

"What more interesting is why it attacked in the first place…" Arcana muttered contemplatively, circling the creature in fascination.

"It's a monster – in this world, they're prone to attacking…" I explained.

"But the monsters disappeared with the birth of the tree..." Genis contemplated.

"What? Really?"

This was news to me.

"Most of the 'monsters' were merely created by the unstable mana levels. Before that, they were ordinary animals."

"Which brings me back to the point: why did the sandworm attack us just now?" Arcana asked.

I thought to any reasons why animals in reality may attack humans – not that there were many… Desperate hunger…not likely – we'd be the smallest of snacks to this creature; it would be the equivalent of a human eating a single raisin to ward off starvation. Perhaps territory? But then, why would it attack now, of all times – the Renegade base must have been here for a long time… In the end, I thought that in some way, we must have provoked it, and I relayed this idea to the group.

However, no one could think of how we might have enraged the creature…

"Hey, I have an idea!" Arcana shouted excitedly. "Why don't I turn into one of these things? Maybe I'll find out what's wrong!"

Sceptical though we were, no one had a better idea, and Arcana was more than willing to take part, so we found ourselves facing a large mound of flesh, whom it was difficult to remember her true, human identity.

The sand-worm-Arcana gave a low, pained roar as soon as she was in that form, and didn't stop shrieking out in agony until she returned to her human state. She was severely shaken and out of breath – something I had never seen in Arcana before.

"There…there's a terrible noise…it would drive anyone mad!" she insisted quickly. "It's almost as if I can still hear it now…the screeching…it just rings in your head…"

We quickly analysed the problem and decided that the most likely cause was that some electronic signal from the Renegade base was emitting a signal inaudible to humans, but infuriating to the sandworms. A quick sweep of the base later, we found it – a piece of transmitting equipment for use between the Triet base and the Flanoir base. Obviously, we turned it off, using alternative methods to communicate, and enjoyed the lack of sandworm fighting.

To celebrate, the Agornedians promised to treat us to dinner that evening and worked hard for the rest of the day in the kitchens. They wouldn't let anyone else in to see what they were making, but a deliciously mouth-watering smell exuded from the small room. I began to feel resentful that I couldn't eat it, whatever it was. If it tasted half as good as it smelt, it would have been the best thing I'd ever eaten.

By the time they emerged from the kitchen, the sun had just set, and the desert was cooling down. We decided to eat outside, sitting on the sand and gathered around a large, open fire – partly for nostalgia's sake, partly for my sake and mostly to keep everyone warm in the rapidly cooling night.

The Agornedian's emerged with a large steaming pizza in each hand and a wide grin on their faces.

"It's…pizza…" I said, stating the obvious.

"We learnt to make it in Reality after scraping up enough money to buy a pizza for the group," Magic started.

Tyrio butted in here, with: "Linori was really curious and wanted to know what they tasted like."

"And they quickly became our favourite dish!" Arcana piped up with a huge grin.

Soon, everyone – except me – was digging into the golden cheesy delight that was freshly baked pizza. Shortly after, Lloyd wondered idly what was in the pizza. I wasn't about to enlighten him to the fact that it contained tomatoes. However…my eyes fell on Kratos with a smirk…to tell or not to tell?

In the end, he worked it out himself, having taken one bite of the pizza and commented that something tasted odd. Still, Lloyd seemed not to notice anything, so I kept quiet. Everyone kept eating – it was unbearable that I could smell it, yet not be able to eat it!

At first, it seemed like a normal, relaxed evening – albeit outside, under the stars. But then I realised that everyone seemed to be chattering away so unconcernedly…even people like Regal, who barely said a sentence a day, were joining in the conversation enthusiastically. Then, I noticed – first in Colette, but later in other people – a tendency to giggle…a lot…at things that weren't even funny…

What was going on?

In true party style, alcohol was procured from nowhere – it was only cider, but still alcohol. While someone more naïve may have blamed the alcohol for the chatty, giggly atmosphere, I noticed that Genis wasn't allowed any, and most everyone's glasses were still full, yet this atmosphere prevailed. One does not get drunk on a sip of cider!

So, now I was suspicious…and my suspicions fell on the pizza. I was forcibly reminded of the 'cigarette' I found outside the Agornedian's room…

"Magic!" I shouted across the camp.

She smiled easily. "What?"

"You've…drugged…everyone?!" I asked incredulously.

Arcana grinned. "Hey, it's our speciality! Wacky Baccy Pizza!"

"Always lightens the mood!" Magic said casually.

"And you've had this yourself?" I asked sceptically.

"Yep."

I sighed – there wasn't really anything I could do by now, anyway. Besides, they didn't seem to be too bad…it wasn't as if they were hallucinating…

Suddenly, Colette laughed, pointing at the fire.

"I think that fire is talking to me!" she smiled.

A moment's pause, and then: "Nope, it wants to speak to you, Lloyd!"

"Huh? Me? Okay, mister fire, whatever you say!"

And the whole group burst out laughing. And not just a short, forced laugh – this was unstoppable, lung-bursting, breathless laughter.

By now, the pizza had all been eaten, and Linori initiated a competition to spin on one spot without falling over or stumbling off the spot. They all staggered – swaying – to their feet. I noticed that their sense of balance was right off – they were physically incapable of walking in a straight line. What was perhaps more amazing is that virtually everyone participated in the contest.

One thing which is easily overlooked in a pitch black night is a jet black dragon, but apparently, Cruxis had been fed the pizza too, meaning we had the equivalent of a slightly drunk, fire-breathing herd of elephants to worry about. But, no one was really worrying, except me…

"Hey, does anyone want a ride?" Cruxis asked, spreading her wings.

I had a _very _bad feeling about this, as Cruxis was already swaying on her feet. However, my protests were swept away, and most everyone thought it was a very good idea. There was plenty of room on the dragon for them all, so many of the Symphonians and all of the Agornedians climbed on and Cruxis took off with powerful flaps of her wings.

I could tell as she wavered in the air that this wasn't going to last too long, one way or another. First, she did a couple of shaky circles above the flat sands of the desert, but soon, she got more adventurous and proceeded to fly…all over the place, really…

I took flight using my own wings, so I could be ready to help…not quite knowing how much help I would be to an extremely large, 'drunk' dragon, but trying anyway.

Suddenly, Cruxis swerved into the path of a rocky mountain.

"Cruxis! Hard left!" I shouted at the top of my voice.

Cruxis blinked, looked ahead, saw the rock face as if it was the first time she'd ever seen it and then…painfully slowly…turned, clipping her right wing on the rock face, but not noticing.

"Who put that there?" she grumbled.

Shortly after, she had a conversation with a nearby cloud…

"What do you mean: 'I'm flying drunk'? I'm cone sold stober!" she argued.

Despite her protests, she landed sheepishly.

"The man in the cloud office said I was speeding, flying recklessly and flying under the influence of substances that could impede my judgment, so I should land, and if I argued, they'd take my flying license away…"

After this series of events, the humans resumed spinning on the spot again.

When all the Symphonians had fallen over playing the 'spin-on-the-spot' game, the Agornedians had a heated battle for the win – their sense of balance seemed to be far more acute, despite having eaten, if anything, more pizza than everyone else. Eventually, Linori won.

"I reckon," Genis pointed, with a broad smile, "that Linori was cheating."

Tyrio nodded sagely. "He cheats…he always cheats…" Then, he burst out laughing.

Even the possibility of someone cheating couldn't dampen the party atmosphere, and I had to admit that the drug was about as potent as a small amount of alcohol – enough to make your inhibitions lowered and make yourself more giggly, but it wasn't a hallucinogenic. They were as harmless as drunks in this state. I would only have been worried about their safety if this had happened in Reality, near a main road – I had a feeling that in the mood they were in, they'd go into the middle of the road just to do something slightly weird, like jump on cat's eyes…

A loud belch broke me out of my train of thought.

"Magic!" Tyrio protested light-heartedly.

A longer, more pronounced burp came from Mystik.

"Ha, I so beat you!" she said in triumph.

Magic forced up another burp. "That's better than yours!" she crowed.

"No way – mine was louder than that! Nia, wasn't mine better than hers?"

I was taken aback to be dragged suddenly into the conversation – especially the fact that the two most ladylike Agornedians were having a burping contest!

"Uh, yeah, Mystik's was louder…" I said slightly nervously.

"See!" Mystik insisted.

"No, mine was definitely better," Magic argued.

"Stop complaining," Mystik said dismissively.

"I'm not complaining! And stop complaining about me complaining!"

Both Magic and Mystik locked eyes – this discussion could go on all night if that's what it took…

And then, another wave of laughter broke over them, and the matter was dropped.

"This is just…surreal…" I complained quietly. "At one point, the Agornedians were our enemy…in fact, that was barely a fortnight ago! And now…we're basically drunk in their company…"

"It is unusual," Kratos agreed, making me jump – I'd forgotten he was still 'sober'. "Still, they have no ill intent, so it is best to leave them be."

"True…" I replied, gazing at the group.

By now, Magic had started on singing songs – some of which were from Reality.

"Start spreading the news: I'm leaving today. I want to be a great big part of it - Yew Nork, Yew Nork!"

Of course, no one gurenteed that she had the right words…

Arcana jumped up and down excitedly. "Why don't we get a twirly thing?"

"Twirly thing?"

"It's kinda like a see-saw…but kinda like a roundabout at the same time…and it's also like a swing…" she described, leaving me utterly lost.

It turned out that they couldn't make one in the desert – the sand was too soft, and wouldn't support the pole they needed.

I noticed, now, it seemed to be quieter. Apart from the Agornedians, the drugs seemed to be wearing off, and more than anything, everyone just wanted to go to bed. So, in two and threes, we ambled back to the base so those who had to sleep could crawl into bed.

Linori, hanging near the back of the loose crowd, smiled softly. "Legless, but smiling…"

It would be interesting, I thought, to see what the morning would bring…

* * *

Mez: Oh my god, it's done! I've been promising for about three weeks to get this up! Sorry everyone – I know it's basically a filler chapter, but I had to put something more about the Agornedians in…

Jana: Because Nannon was complaining about her lack of lines…

Mez: Something like that… Anyway, I'd better say something about the drugs…the scene was loosely based on a real life event – Nannon (Magic), Tegg (Mystik) and I ordered pizza from our local pizza place and we got so hyper and giggly while eating it…and afterwards, we couldn't walk in a straight line…

Nannon: Yew Nork, Yew Nork!

Mez: Yep, she really sung that…at ten at night…you neighbourhood menace…

Nannon: You were the one who shouted 'I've just stepped on a corpse!' It was a patch of moss!

Mez: …Uh…anyway…we aren't really druggies or anything, we just eat suspicious pizzas – they allways put 'orregano' on for 'flavour' but I think we have it sussed, now… Oh, and a final thing – Nannon and Tegg did really jump on the cat's eyes in the middle of the road!

Jana: Please review and help us though our exams!


End file.
